


Tt\e ACADe^Y seRfes of 

eNGLISH CLASSICS 




Milton 
Paradise Lost 

Books I. and II. 

it 

EDITED BY 

HENRY W. BOYNTON 



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ALLYN AND BACON 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Cliap....}..-- Copyright No,. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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W^t acatiems Series of lEnglisi) Classics 



PARADISE LOST 



Books 1 and II y 



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EDITED BY 



HENRY Wj^ BOYNTON ^ 



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Boston 

ALLYN AND BACON 
1897 



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Copyright, 1897, by 
HENRY W. BOYNTON. . . i 



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Nortoaoli ^rt53 

J. S. Gushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 



Any excuse which may be needed for the existence of this 
new edition of the first two books of Paradise Lost will be 
found, not in the Notes so much as in the Introduction and 
Conclusion. The present volume aims to present, in form 
at once compact and continuous, and mainly in Milton's 
own words, the story of Paradise Lost, and especially the 
story of Satan. It is expected that the quoted passages 
will not only set forth the narrative with some clearness, 
but will afford something more than a glimpse of the poet 
at his best. The editor recommends that the Introduction, 
the first two Books, and the Conclusion, be first read from 
beginning to end, with a view to getting the perspective of 
the story ; after which the student may take up more prof- 
itably a detailed study of Books I. and II. 

In the preparation of the Notes, constant use has been 
made of other editions. Special acknowledgment is due 
first, of course, to Masson ; and in hardly less degree to the 
editions of Verity and Hale. 

H. W. B. 

Andover, April, 1897. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is doubtless possible to study the first two books of 
Paradise Lost by themselves with some degree of profit. 
They have a unity of their own. The limited field of action, 
the strength and simplicity of the conception which we here 
get of Satan and his followers, the dramatic quality of the 
dialogue (which seldom lapses into mere declamation), — all 
these characteristics of this fragment give it an interest of 
its own. And yet, after all, it is only a fragment. We 
must go back of, and forward of, these events in order to 
grasp their full meaning. Here is pictured the noblest 
phase of Satan's nature, but it is a phase which is to be 
succeeded by other developments of no less interest. The 
episode of the interview with Sin and Death is mainly sig- 
nificant as a prophecy : these monsters become of impor- 
tance only in the sequel. Hell is here the stage of action ; 
but there was a former and more varied action on the 
greater stage of Heaven, and there is to be a later (and 
again more active) series of events on the lesser stage of 
Earth. 

We shall attempt to trace from beginning to end the 
course of that great story of which the first two books con- 
stitute an intermediate episode. And we shall begin by 
quoting somewhat freely from Masson, the greatest of Mil- 
ton's editors (Introduction to Paradise Lost, pp. 26-30) : — 

^Paradise Lost is an epic. But it is not, like the Iliad 
or the ^neid, a national epic ; nor is it an epic after any 
other of the known types. It is an epic of the whole human 
B 1 



2 Paradise Lost. 

species, an epic of our entire planet, or indeed of the entire 
astronomical universe. The title of the poem, though per- 
haps the best that could have been chosen, hardly indicates 
beforehand the full nature or extent of the theme ; nor are 
the opening lines, by themselves, sufficiently descriptive of 
what is to follow. According to them, the story is to be 

" Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
With loss of Eden." 

This is a true enough description, because the whole story 
bears on this point. But it is the vast comprehension of the 
story, both in space and in time, as leading to this point, 
that makes it unique among epics, and entitles Milton to 
speak of it as involving 

" Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." 

It is, in short, a poetical representation, on the authority of 
hints from the Book of Genesis, of the historical connection 
between Human Time and Aboriginal or Eternal Infinity, 
or between our created World a,nd the immeasurable and in- 
conceivable Universe of Pre-human Existence. So far as 
our World is concerned, the poem starts from that moment 
when our newly-created Earth, with all the newly-created 
starry depths about it, had as yet but two human beings 
upon it ; and these consequently are, on this side of the pre- 
supposed Infinite Eternity, the main persons of the epic. 
But we are carried back into this pre-supposed Infinite 
Eternity, and the grand purpose of the poem is to connect, 
by a stupendous imagination, certain events or courses of 
the inconceivable history that had been unfolding itself 
there with the first fortunes of that new azure World which 
is familiar to us, and more particularly with the first fort- 
unes of that favored ball at the centre whereon those two 
human creatures walked. Now the person of the epic 



Introduction. 3 

through the narration of whose acts this connection is estab- 
lished is Satan. He, as all critics have perceived, and in a 
wider sense than most of them have perceived, is the real 
hero of the poem. He and his actions are the link between 
that new World of Man the infancy of which we behold in 
the poem, and that boundless antecedent Universe of Pre- 
human Existence which the poem assumes. For he was a 
native of that Pre-human Universe, — one of its greatest and 
most conspicuous natives; and what we follow in the poem, 
when its story is taken chronologically, is the life of this 
great being, from the time of his yet unimpaired primacy 
or archangelship among the Celestials, on to that time when, 
in pursuit of a scheme of revenge, he flings himself into the 
new experimental World, tries the strength of the new race 
at its fountain-head, and, by success in his attempt, vitiates 
Man's portion of space to his own nature, and wins posses- 
sion of it for a season. 

' Aboriginally, or in primeval Eternity, before the creation 
of our Earth or the Starry Universe to which it belongs, 
universal space is to be considered, according to the requi- 
sites of the poem, not as containing stars or starry systems 
at all, but as, so to say, a sphere of infinite radius, divided 
equatorially into two hemispheres, thus : 




The upper of these two hemispheres of primeval Infinity is 
Heaven, or The Empyrean, — a boundless, unimaginable 



4 Paradise Lost. 

region of Light, Freedom, Happiness, and Glory, in the 
midst whereof Deity, though omnipresent, has His imme- 
diate and visible dwelling, and where He is surrounded by 
a vast population of beings, called '^ the Angels," or " Sons 
of God," who draw near to His throne in worship, derive 
thence their nurture and their delight, and yet live dispersed 
through all the ranges and recesses of the region, leading 
severally their mighty lives and performing the behests 
of Deity, but organized into companies, orders, and hierar- 
chies. Milton is careful to explain that all he says of Heaven 
is said symbolically, and in order to make conceivable by 
the human imagination what in its own nature is inconceiv- 
able; but, this explained, he is bold enough in his use of 
terrestrial analogies. Eound the immediate throne of Deity, 
indeed, there is kept a blazing mist of vagueness, which 
words are hardly permitted to pierce, though the Angels 
are represented as from time to time assembling within it, 
beholding the Divine Presence and hearing the Divine Voice. 
But Heaven at large, or portions of it, are figured as tracts 
of a celestial Earth, with plain, hill, and valley, wherein 
the myriads of the Sons of God expatiate, in their two orders 
of Seraphim and Cherubim, and in their descending ranks 
as Archangels or Chiefs, Princes of various degrees, and 
individual Powers and Intelligences. Certain differences, 
however, are implied as distinguishing these Celestials from 
the subsequent race of Mankind. As they are of infinitely 
greater prowess, immortal, and of more purely spiritual 
nature, so their ways even of physical existence and action 
transcend all that is within human experience. Their forms 
are dilatable or contractible at jDleasure ; they move with 
incredible swiftness ; and as they are not subject to any law 
of gravitation, their motion, though ordinarily represented 
as horizontal over the Heavenly ground, may as well be ver- 
tical or in any other direction, and their aggregations need 
not, like those of men, be in squares, oblongs, or other 



Introduction, 5 

plane figures, but may be in cubes, or other rectangular or 
oblique solids, or in spherical masses. ... As respects the 
other half or hemisphere of the primeval Infinity, though 
it too is inconceivable in its nature, and has to be described 
by words which are at best symbolical, less needs be said. 
For it is Chaos, or the Uninhabited, — a huge, limitless 
ocean, abyss, or quagmire, of universal darkness and life- 
lessness, wherein are jumbled in blustering confusion the 
elements of all matter, or rather the crude embryons of all 
the elements, ere as yet they are distinguishable. There is 
no light there, nor properly Earth, Water, Air, or Fire, but 
only a vast pulp or welter of unformed matter, in which all 
these lie tempestuously intermixed. Though the presence 
of Deity is there potentially too, it is still, as it were, actu- 
ally retracted thence, as from a realm unorganized and left 
to Night and Anarchy; nor do any of the Angels wing 
down into its repulsive obscurities. The crystal floor or 
wall of Heaven divides them from it ; underneath which, and 
unvisited of light, save what may glimmer through upon 
its nearer strata, it howls and rages and stagnates eternally. 
— Such is and has been the constitution of the Universal 
Infinitude from ages immemorial in the Angelic reckoning.' 

But such was not to be the final constitution either of the 
cosmogony or of the Heavenly society ; for on a day, 

On such day 
As Heaven's great year brings forth, the empyreal host 
Of Angels, by imperial summons called, 
Innumerable before the Almighty's throne 
Forthwith from all the ends of Heaven appeared 
Under their Hierarchs in order bright : 
Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced, 
Standards and gonfalons, 'twixt van and rear 
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve 
Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees ; 



6 Paradise Lost, 

Or in their glittering tissues bear emblazed 
Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love 
Recorded eminent. Thus when in orbs 
Of circuit inexpressible they stood, 
Orb within orb, the Father Infinite, 
By whom in bliss imbosomed sat the Son, 
Amidst as from a flaming mount, whose top 
Brightness had made invisible, thus spake : — 

* Hear, all ye Angels, progeny of light, 
Thrones, Domhiations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, 
Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall stand : 
This day I have begot whom I declare 
My only Son ; and on this holy hill 
Him have anointed, whom ye now behold 
At my right hand. Your Head I him appoint; 
And by myself have sworn, to him shall bow 
All knees in Heaven, and shall confess him Lord : 
Under his great vicegerent reign abide. 
United as one individual soul. 
Forever happy. Him who disobeys, 
Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day 
Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls 
Into utter darkness, deep engulfed, his place 
Ordained without redemption, without end.' 

So spake the Omnipotent ; and with his words 
All seemed well pleased ; all seemed, but were not all. 

(V. 582-617.) 

The day which follows is employed, like all former 
Heavenly days, in songs, dancing, and feasting: 

Secure 
Of surfeit, where full measure only bounds 
Excess, before the All-bounteous King, who showered 
With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy. 
Now when ambrosial Night, with clouds exhaled 
From that high mount of God, whence light and shade 
Spring both, the face of brightest Heaven had changed 
To grateful twilight (for Night comes not there 



Introduction. 7 

In darker veil), and roseate dews disposed 

All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest : 

Wide over all the plain, and wider far 

Than all this globous Earth in plain outspread 

(Such are the courts of God), the Angelic throng. 

Dispersed in bands and files, their camp extend 

By living streams among the trees of life : 

Pavilions numberless, and sudden reared, 

Celestial tabernacles, where they slept 

Fanned with cool winds ; save those who in their course 

Melodious hymns about the sovran throne 

Alternate all night long. But not so waked 

Satan ; so call him now, his former name 

Is heard no more in Heaven. He of the first, 

If not the first Archangel, great in power, 

In favor, and pre-eminence, yet fraught 

With envy against the Son of God, that day 

Honored by his great Father, and proclaimed 

Messiah, King Anointed, could not bear 

Through pride that sight, and thought himself impaired. 

Deep malice thence conceiving, and disdain, 

Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour 

Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolved 

With all his legions to dislodge, and leave 

Unworshipped, unobeyed the Throne supreme, 

Contemptuous. (V. 638-671.) 

He awakes his ^next subordinate/ Beelzebub, and, plainly 
insinuating his purpose of rebellion, pro^DOses that an as- 
sembly be made 'of all those myriads which we lead in 
chief,' ostensibly to prepare for the reception of the son 
(called in this passage ' the great Messiah '), who is soon 
to make his initial progress of royal pomp through his 
dominions. Beelzebub is instantly at work. He advises 
' the regent powers, under him regent,' of Satan's will : 

Tells the suggested cause, and casts between 
Ambiguous words and jealousies, to sound 



8 Paradise Lost. 

Or taint integrity. But all obeyed 
The wonted signal and superior voice 
Of their great potentate ; for great indeed 
His name, and high was his degree in Heaven : 
His countenance as the morning star that guides 
The starry flock, allured them, and with lies 
Drew after him the third part of Heaven's host. 
Meanwhile the Eternal Eye, whose sight discerns 
Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy mount, 
And from within the golden lamps that burn 
Nightly before him, saw without their light 
Rebellion rising ; saw in whom, how spread 
Among the Sons of Morn, what multitudes 
Were banded to oppose his high decree. 

(V. 702-717.) 

The Father and the Son commune with regard to the 
threatened uprising, and we are given to know at the out- 
set that it is all a part of the divine plan. In the mean- 
time Satan's host is assembling. 

Innumerable as the stars of night. 

Or stars of morning, dewdrops, which the sun 

Impearls on every leaf and every flower. 

(V. 745-747.) 

At last they come into the far north, and to the abode of 
Satan, which Milton himself calls a ' royal seat ' : 

High on a hill, far blazing, as a mount 
Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers 
From diamond quarries hewn, and rocks of gold. 

(V. 757-759.) 

Satan from his throne addresses them, at first in a stately 
strain not unlike that in which the Father himself has spoken ; 
but soon with a rush of feeling : 

' Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, — 
If these magnific titles yet remain 



Introduction. 9 

Not merely titular, since by decree 
Another now hath to himself ingrossed 
All power, and us eclipsed under the name 
Of King Anointed ; for whom all this haste 
Of midnight march, and hurried meeting here, 
This only to consult, how we may best. 
With what may be devised of honors new, 
Receive him coming to receive from us 
Knee-tribute yet unpaid, prostration vile ! 
Too much to one ! but double how endured — 
To one and to his image now proclaimed ? 
But what if better counsels might erect 
Our minds, and teach us to cast off this yoke? 
Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend 
The supple knee? Ye will not, if I trust 
To know ye rigTit; or if ye know yourselves 
Natives and Sons of Heaven possessed before 
By none, and, if not equal all, yet free, 
Equally free ; for orders and degrees 
Jar not with liberty, but well consist. 
Who can in reason then or right assume 
Monarchy over such as live by right 
His equals — if in power and splendor less, 
In freedom equal ? or can introduce 
Law and edict on us, who without law 
Err not ? much less for this to be our Lord, 
And look for adoration, to the abuse 
Of those imperial titles which assert 
Our being ordained to govern, not to serve ! ' 

(V. 772-802.) 

The appeal is heard with favor by all but one, the Seraph 
Abdiel, who, after a fiery protest against Satan's infidelity, 
and a strict defence of the divine right, finds himself still 
alone in his position. Satan inquires ironically for proof 
that the angels owe their being to God : 

' Remember'st thou 
Thy making, while the Maker gave thee being ? 



10 Paradise Lost. 

We know no time when we were not as now ; 
Know none before us, self -begot, self-raised 
By our own quickening power, when fatal course 
Had circled his full orb ; the birth mature 
Of this our native Heaven, Ethereal Sons. 
Our puissance is our own ; our own right hand 
Shall teach us highest deeds, by proof to try 
Who is our equal : then thou shalt behold 
Whether by supplication we intend 
Address, and to begirt the Almighty Throne 
Beseeching or besieging. This report. 
These tidings, carry to the Anointed King ; 
And fly, ere evil intercept thy flight.' 

He said ; and as the sound of waters deep, 
Hoarse murmur echoed to his words applause 

Through the infinite host. 

(V. 857-874.) 

The challenge is given. Abdiel, flinging them a prophecy 
of their fall, goes out from tliem : 

Among the faithless, faithful only he ; 

Among innumerable false, unmoved. 

Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, 

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal ; 

Nor numbers, nor example, with him wrought 

To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, 

Though single. From amidst them forth he passed, 

Long way through hostile scorn, which he sustained 

Superior, nor of violence feared aught ; 

And with retorted scorn his back he turned 

On those proud towers, to swift destruction doomed. 

(V. 897-907.) 

He pursues his way to the sacred regions of God's nearer 
presence, and finds his news already known, and prepara- 
tions for war already made. From the cloud which hangs 
over the sacred hill comes the mild voice of God in com- 
mendation of his faithful servant, to whom he promises 



Introduction, 11 

an easier task in the subduing by force of the rebellious 
crew. Michael is made commander-in-chief, with Gabriel 
as his lieutenant, and bidden drive Satan and his followers 
out of Heaven 

* Into their place of punishment, the gulf 
Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide 
His fiery Chaos to receive their fall.' 

So spake the Sovran Voice ; and clouds began 
To darken all the hill, and smoke to roll 
In dusky wreaths reluctant flames, the sign 
Of wrath awaked ; nor with less dread the loud 
Ethereal trumpet from on high 'gan blow : 
At which command the powers militant 
That stood for Heaven, in mighty quadrate joined 
Of union irresistible, moved on 
In silence their bright legions, to the sound 
Of instrumental harmony, that breathed 
Heroic ardor to adventurous deeds 
Under their godlike leaders, in the cause 
Of God and his Messiah. On they move 
Indissolubly firm : nor obvious hill. 
Nor straitening vale, nor wood, nor stream, divides 
Their perfect ranks ; for high above the ground 
Their march was, and the passive air upbore 
Their nimble tread. As when the total kind 
Of birds, in orderly array on wing, 
Came summoned over Eden, to receive 
Their names of thee * ; so over many a tract 
Of Heaven they marched, and many a province wide 
Tenfold the length of this terrene. At last, 
Far in the horizon to the north appeared 
From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretched 
In battailous aspect, and nearer view 
Bristled with upright beams innumerable 
Of rigid spears, and helmets thronged, and shields 
Various, with boastful argument portrayed ; 

* Kaphael is telling the story to Adam. 



12 Paradise Lost. 

The banded Powers of Satan hasting on 

With furious expedition ; for they weened 

That self-same day, by fight or by surprise, 

To win the Mount of God, and on his throne 

To set the envier of his state, the proud 

Aspirer ; but their thoughts proved fond and vain 

In the mid-way. Though strange to us it seemed 

At first, that Angel should with Angel war, 

And in fierce hosting meet, who wont to meet 

So oft in festivals of joy and love 

Unanimous, as sons of one great Sire, 

Hymning the Eternal Father ; but the shout 

Of battle now began, and rushing sound 

Of onset ended soon each milder thought. 

High in the midst, exalted as a God, 

The Apostate in his sun-bright chariot sat, 

Idol of majesty divine, enclosed 

With flaming Cherubim and golden shields; 

Then lighted from his gorgeous throne ; for now 

'Twixt host and host but narrow space was left 

(A dreadful interval), and front to front 

Presented stood, in terrible array. 

Of hideous length. Before the cloudy van, 

On the rough edge of battle ere it joined, 

Satan, with vast and haughty strides advanced, 

Came towering, armed in adamant and gold. 

(VI. 53-110.) 

Satan is at once confronted by the faithful Abdiel, whose 
words of contempt and defiance are flung back by the rebel 
Angel with bitter scorn. Abdiel answers his charges of ser- 
vility and meanness of spirit, with magnificent firmness, 
concluding triumphantly : 

' This is servitude. 
To serve the unwise, or him who hath rebelled 
Against his worthier, as thine now serve thee, 
Thyself not free, but to thyself enthralled ; 



Introduction. 13 

Yet lewdly darest our ministering upbraid. 
Reign thou in Hell, thy kingdom ; let me serve 
In Heaven God ever blest, and his divine 
Behests obey, worthiest to be obeyed ; 
Yet chains in Hell, not realms expect : meanwhile 
From me returned, as erst thou saidst, from flight, 
This greeting on thy impious crest receive.' 
So saying, a noble stroke he lifted high, 
Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell 
On the proud crest of Satan, that no sight, 
ISTor motion of swift thought, less could his shield 
Such ruin intercept. Ten paces huge 
He back recoiled ; the tenth on bended knee 
His massy spear upstayed: as if on earth 
Winds under ground, or waters forcing way 
Sidelong, had pushed a mountain from his seat. 
Half sunk with all his pines. Amazement seized 
The rebel Thrones, but greater rage, to see 
Thus foiled their mightiest ; ours joy filled and shout. 
Presage of victory and fierce desire 
Of battle; whereat Mich" 1 bid sound 
The Archangel trumpet : through the vast of Heaven 
It sounded, and the faithful armies rung 
Hosannah to the Highest : nor stood at gaze 
The adverse legions, nor less hideous joined 
The horrid shock. Now storming fury rose. 
And clamor such as heard in Heaven till now 
Was never; arms on armor clashing brayed 
Horrible discord, and the madding wheels 
Of brazen chariots raged ; dire was the noise 
Of conflict ; overhead the dismal hiss \ 

Of fiery darts in flaming volleys flew, 
And flying vaulted either host with fire. 
So under fiery cope together rushed 
Both battles main with ruinous assault 
And inextinguishable rage. All Heaven 
Resounded; and had Earth been then, all Earth 
Had to her centre shook. 

(YI. 178-219.) 



14 Paradise Lost. 

The hosts of Satan advance in apparently impregnable 
array : 

Each warrior single as in chief ; expert 

When to advance, or stand, or turn the sway 

Of battle, open when, and when to close 

The ridges of grim war : no thought of flight, 

None of retreat ; no unbecoming deed 

That argued fear : each on himself relied 

As only in his arm the moment lay 

Of victory. Deeds of eternal fame 

Were done, but infinite ; for wide was spread 

That war, and various : sometimes on firm ground 

A standing fight; then, soaring on main wing. 

Tormented all the air ; all air seemed then 

Conflicting fire. Long time in even scale 

The battle hung ; till Satan, who that day 

Prodigious power had shown, and met in arms 

No equal, ranging through the dire attack 

Of fighting Seraphim confused, at length 

Saw where the sword of Michael smote, and felled 

Squadrons at once ; with huge two-handed sway 

Brandished aloft, the horrid edge came down 

Wide wasting : such destruction to withstand 

He hasted, and opposed the rocky orb 

Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield, 

A vast circumference. 

(VI. 233-256.) 

The armies withdraw, and leave the champions face to 
face. There is another wordy war, and at last 

They ended parle, and both addressed for fight 
Unspeakable ; for who, though with the tongue 
Of Angels, can relate, or to what things 
Liken on Earth conspicuous, that may lift 
Human imagination to such highth 
Of godlike power ? for likest gods they seemed. 
Stood they or moved, in stature, motion, arms ; 



Introductio7i. 16 

Fit to decide the empire of great Heaven. 

Now waved their fiery swords, and in the air 

Made horrid circles : two broad suns their shields 

Blazed opposite, while Expectation stood 

In horror : from each hand with speed retired, 

Where erst was thickest fight, the Angelic throng. 

And left large field, unsafe within the wind 

Of such commotion ; such as, to set forth 

Great things by small, if Nature's concord broke. 

Among the constellations war were sprung. 

Two planets rushing from aspect malign 

Of fiercest opposition in mid-sky 

Should combat, and their jarring spheres confound. 

Together both, with next to almighty arm 

Uplifted imminent, one stroke they aimed 

That might determine, and not need repeat. 

As not of power at once ; nor odds appeared 

In might or swift prevention. But the sword 

Of Michael from the armory of God, 

Was given him tempered so, that neither keen 

Nor solid might resist that edge : it met 

The sword of Satan with steep force to smite 

Descending, and in half cut sheer; nor stayed, 

But with swift wheel reverse, deep entering shared 

All his right side. Then Satan first knew pain. 

And writhed him to and fro convolved ; so sore 

The griding sword with discontinuous wound 

Passed through him : but the ethereal substance closed, 

Not long divisible ; and from the gash 

A stream of nectarous humor, issuing, flowed 

Sanguine, such as celestial Spirits may bleed. 

And all his armor stained, erewhile so bright. 

Forthwith on all sides to his aid was run 

By Angels many and strong, who interposed 

Defence, while others bore him on their shields 

Back to his chariot, where it stood retired 

From off the files of war : there they him laid 

Gnashing for anguish, and despite, and shame, 

To find himself not matchless, and his pride 



16 Paradise Lost. 

Humbled in that rebuke, so far beneath 
His confidence to equal God in power. 

(VI. 296-343.) 

Satan is disabled for the moment : his followers share his 
reverse of fortune, and the first day closes with a nominal 
victory for the hosts of God. 

The second day's struggle assumes Titanic proportions. 
It is no longer to be an orderly hand-to-hand struggle. 
Satan calls in the use of artillery. The army of God in 
desperation throw aside their arms 

. . . And to the hills, 
Light as the lightning-glimpse, they ran, they flew : 
From their foundations, loosening to and fro. 
They plucked the seated hills, with all their load. 
Rocks, wa'ters, woods, and by their shaggy tops 
Uplifting, bore them in their hands. 

(VI. 639-647.) 

Satan's artillery is overwhelmed; and his followers, des- 
perate in their turn, have recourse to the same tremendous 
weapons : 

Infernal noise ! War seemed a civil game 
To this uproar : horrid confusion heaped 
Upon confusion rose : and now all Heaven 
Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread, 
Had not the Almighty Father, where he sits 
Shrined in his sanctuary of Heaven secure, 
Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen 
This tumult, and permitted all, advised ; 
That his great purpose he might so fulfil, 
To honor his Anointed Son, avenged 
Upon his enemies, and to declare 
All power on him transferred. 

(VI. 667-678.) 



Introduction. 17 

The Son, endued with God's own omnipotence, pledges 
his willing service in the restoration of peace to Heaven by 
the overthrow and expulsion of the rebel crew. 

And the third sacred morn began to shine, 

Dawning thro' Heaven. Forth rushed with whirlwind sound 

The chariot of Paternal Deity. 

(VI. 748-751.) 

******** 

He, in celestial panoply all armed 
Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought, 
Ascended. At his right hand victory 
Sat eagle-winged ; beside him hung his bow 
And quiver with three-bolted thunder stored ; 
And from about him fierce effusion rolled 
Of smoke and bickering flame and sparkles dire : 
Attended with ten thousand thousand Saints, 
He onward came ; far off his coming shone ; 
And twenty thousand (I their number heard) 
Chariots of God, half on each hand, were seen. 
He on the wings of Cherub rode sublime 
On the crystalline sky, in sapphire throned. 
Illustrious far and wide, but by his own 
First seen ; them unexpected joy surprised. 
When the great ensign of Messiah blazed 
Aloft, by Angels borne, his sign in Heaven ; 
. Under whose conduct Michael soon reduced 
His army, circumfused on either wing. 
Under their Head embodied all in one. 
Before him power divine his way prepared : 
At his command the uprooted hills retired 
Each to his place ; they heard his voice, and went 
Obsequious ; Heaven his wonted face renewed, 
And with fresh flowerets hill and valley smiled. 

(VI. 760-784.) 

The rebel host perceive his coming with dismay, but stand 
resolute, determined to maintain their cause to the end. 
The Messiah addresses the faithful army of God; com- 



18 Paradise Lost, 

mends them for their fidelity and zeal, and shows them 
that it is fitting for him, the cause of the rebellion, the 
object of Satan's enmity, to be the instrument of God's 
power in restoring order and unanimity in Heaven. 

So spake the Son, and into terror changed 
His countenance, too severe to be beheld. 
And full of wrath bent on his enemies. 
At once the Four spread out their starry wings 
With dreadful shade contiguous, and the orbs 
Of his fierce chariot rolled, as with the sound 
Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host. 
He on his impious foes right onward drove, 
Gloomy as night : under his burning wheels 
The steadfast Empyrean shook throughout, 
All but the throne itself of God. Full soon 
Among them he arrived ; in his right hand 
Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent 
Before him, such as in their souls infixed 
Plagues. They, astonished, all resistance lost. 
All courage ; down their idle weapons dropt ; 
O'er shields and helms and helmed heads he rode 
Of Thrones and mighty Seraphim prostrate. 
That wished the mountains now might be again 
Thrown on them, as a shelter from his ire. 
Nor less on either side tempestuous fell 
His arrows, from the fourfold-visaged Four, 
Distinct with eyes, and from the living wheels 
Distinct alike with multitude of eyes ; 
One Spirit in them ruled, and every eye 
Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire 
Among the accursed, that withered all their strength, 
And of their wonted vigor left them drained, , 
Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fallen : 
Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked 
His thunder in mid-volley ; for he meant 
Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven. 
The overthrown he raised, and, as a herd 
Of goats or timorous flock together thronged. 



Introduction. 19 

Drove them before him thunder struck, pursued 
With terrors and with furies to the bounds 
And crystal wall of Heaven ; which opening wide, 
Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed 
Into the wasteful Deep. The monstrous sight 
Struck them with horror backward ; but far worse 
Urged them behind ; headlong themselves they threw 
Down from the verge of Heaven ; eternal wrath 
Burnt after them to the bottomless pit. 
Hell heard the unsufferable noise : Hell saw 
Heaven ruining from Heaven, and would have fled 
Affrighted ; but strict Fate had cast too deep 
Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound. 
Nine days they fell : confounded Chaos roared, 
And felt tenfold confusion in their fall 
Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout 
Incumbered him with ruin. Hell at last, 
Yawning, received them whole, and on them closed : 
Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire 
Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain. 
Disburdened Heaven rejoiced, and soon repaired 
Her mural breach, returning whence it rolled. 

(VI. 824-879.) 

The Messiah returns in triumph to the paternal throne, 
and is greeted with acclamations by the rejoicing myriads 
who remain in Heaven. 

The first act in the great drama is finished. 

^Eor the moment, therefore, there are three divisions of 
Universal Space, — Heaven, Chaos, and Hell. Almost 
immediately, however, there is a fourth. Not only have 
the expelled Angels been nine days and nights in falling 
through Chaos to reach Hell ; but, after they have reached 
Hell and it has closed over them, they lie for another period 
of nine days and nights (I. 50-53), stupefied and bewildered 
in the fiery gulf. It is during this second nine days that there 



20 Paradise Lost. 

takes place a great event, wliicli farther modifies the map of 
Infinitude. Long had there been talk in Heaven of a new 
race of beings to be created at some time by the Almighty, 
inferior in some respects to the Angels, but in the history 
of whom, and of God's dealings with them, there was to be a 
display of the divine power and love which even the Angels 
might contemplate with wonder (VII. 139-183). The time 
for the creation of this new race of beings has now arrived. 
Scarcely have the Rebel Angels been enclosed in Hell, and 
Chaos has recovered from the turmoil of the descent of such 
a rout through its depths, when the Paternal Deity, address- 
ing the Son, tells him that, in order to repair the loss caused 
to Heaven, the predetermined creation of Man and of the 
"World of Man shall now take effect. It is for the Son to 
execute the will of the Father. Straightway he goes forth 
on his creating errand. The everlasting gates of Heaven 
open wide to let him pass forth; and, clothed with majesty, 
and accompanied with thousands of Seraphim and Cheru- 
bim, anxious to behold the great work to be done, he does 
pass forth — far into that very Chaos through which the 
Rebel Angels have so recently fallen, and which now inter- 
venes between Heaven and Hell. At length he stays his 
fervid wheels, and, taking the golden compasses in his hands, 
centres one point of them where he stands, and turns the 
other through the obscure profundity around (VII. 224-231). 
Thus are marked out, or cut out, through the body of Chaos, 
the limits of the new Universe of Man, — that Starry Uni- 
verse which to us seems measureless and the same as Infinity 
itself, but which is really only a beautiful azure sphere or 
drop, insolated in Chaos, and hung at its topmost point or 
zenith from the Empyrean. But, though the limits of 
the new experimental Creation are thus at once marked 
out, the completion of the Creation is a work of Six Days 
(VII. 242, 550). On the last of these, to crown the work, 
the happy Earth received its first human pair — the appointed 



Introduction. 21 

lords of the entire new Creation. And so, resting from his 
labors, and beholding all that he had made, that it was good, 
the Messiah returned to his Father, reascending through 
the golden gates, which were now just over the zenith of the 
new World, and were its point of suspension from the Em- 
pyrean Heaven ; and the Seventh Day or Sabbath was spent 
in songs of praise by all the Heavenly hosts over the finished 
work, and in contemplation of it as it hung beneath them, 

another Heaven, 
From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view 
On the clear hyaline. 

And now, accordingly, this Avas the diagram of the Uni- 
versal Infinitude: 




There are the three regions of Heaven, Chaos, and Hell 
as before ; but there is now also a fourth region, hung drop- 
like into Chaos by an attachment to Heaven at the north 
pole or zenith. This is the New World, or the Starry 
Universe, — all that Universe of orbs and galaxies which 
man's vision can reach by utmost power of telescope, and 
which even to his imagination is illimitable. And yet as 
to the proportions of this World to the total map Milton 
dares to be exact. The distance from its nadir or lowest 
point to the upper boss of Hell is exactly equal to its own 
radius : or, in other words, the distance of Hell-gate from 



22 Paradise Lost. 

Heaven-gate is exactly three semidiameters of the Human 
or Starry Universe (I. 73, 74).' (Masson, Introduction to 
Paradise Lost, pp. 32-34.) 

We have thus followed the events which make up the 
first part of the threefold story. We have been with Satan 
in that normal state of peace and innocence ^hich he had 
shared for ages with the other Sons of God; in his first 
fault of rebellious pride ; and in the overthrow of his over- 
weening ambition. Before we proceed to the study of his 
character in its next stage of development, we may linger 
a moment over the first scene of that human life which has 
just begun, and which is to constitute a main, if not a para- 
mount, interest throughout the rest of the poem. 

' As new waked from soundest sleep, 
Soft on the flowery herb I found me laid 
In balmy sweat, which with his beams the Sun 
Soon dried, and on the reeking moisture fed. 
Straight toward Heaven my wondering eyes I turned, 
And gazed awhile the ample sky, till, raised 
By quick instinctive motion, up I sprung, 
As thitherward endeavoring, and upright 
Stood on my feet. About me round I saw 
Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains, 
And liquid lapse of murmuring streams : by these, 
Creatures that lived and moved, and walked or flew; 
Birds on the branches warbling : all things smiled ; 
With fragrance and with joy my heart o'erflowed. 
Myself I then perused, and limb by limb 
Surveyed, and sometimes went, and sometimes ran 
With supple joints, as lively vigor led : 
But who I was, or where, or from what cause, 
Knew not. To speak I tried, and forthwith spake ; 
My tongue obeyed, and readily could name 
Whate'er I saw. " Thou Sun," said I, " fair light, 
And thou enlightened Earth, so fresh and gay ; 



Introduction. 23 

Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains, 

And ye that live and move, fair Creatures, tell, 

Tell if ye saw, how came I thus? how here? 

Not of myself ; by some great Maker then. 

In goodness and in power pre-eminent ! 

Tell me, how may I know him, how adore, 

From whom I have that thus I move and live. 

And feel that I am happier than I know ! " 

While thus I called, and strayed I knew not whither, 

From where I first drew air, and first beheld 

This happy light, when answer none returned, 

On a green shady bank profuse of flowers. 

Pensive I sat me down. There gentle sleep 

First found me, and with soft oppression seized 

My drowsed sense, untroubled.' 

(VI 11. 253-289.) 



PARADISE LOST. 



BOOK I. 



The Printer to the Reader. 

Courteous Reader, there was no Argument at first intended to the 
book ; but for the satisfaction of many that have desired it, I have 
procured it, and withal a reason of that which stumbled many others, 
why the poem rimes not. — S. Simmons. 



THE VERSE. 

The measure is English heroic verse, without rime, as that of 
Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin ; rime being no necessary 
adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works 
especially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched 
matter and lame metre ; graced indeed since by the use of some 
famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but much to their 
own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things 
otherwise, and for the most part worse, than else they would have 
expressed them. Not without cause, therefore, some both Italian 
and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rime both in longer 
and shorter works, as have also, long since, our best English trage- 
dies ; as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no 
true musical delight ; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quan- 
tity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse 
into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault 
avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good ora- 
tory. This neglect then of rime so little is to be taken for a 
defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it 
rather is to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of 
ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and 
modern bondage of riming. 



THE ARGUMENT. 

This First Book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject : Man's 
disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise, wherein he was 
placed : then touches the prime cause of his fall — the Serpent, or 
rather Satan in the Serpent ; who, revolting from God, and draw- 
ing to his side many legions of Angels, was by the command of 
God driven out of Heaven with all his crew into the great Deep. 
Which action passed over, the Poem hastens into the midst of things ; 
presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell — described 
here, not in the Centre (for heaven and earth may be supposed 
as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed), but in a place of utter 
darkness, fitliest called Chaos : here Satan with his Angels lying 
on the burning lake, thunderstruck and astonished, after a certain 
space recovers, as from confusion ; calls up him who, next in order 
and dignity, lay by him ; they confer of their miserable fall. Satan 
awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner con- 
founded. They rise : their numbers, array of battle, their chief 
leaders named, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaan 
and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech ; 
comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven ; but tells them 
lastly of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, 
according to an ancient prophecy or report in Heaven ; for that 
Angels were long before this visible creation was the opinion of 
many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, 
and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council. What 
his associates thence attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, 
rises, suddenly built out of the Deep : the infernal Peers there sit 
in council. 



PARADISE LOST. 

BOOK I. 

Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
Of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man 
Eestore us, and regain the blissful seat. 
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top 
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed 
In the beginning how the Heavens and Earth 
E-ose out of Chaos : or, if Sion hill lo 

Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed 
East by the oracle of God, I thence 
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song. 
That with no middle flight intends to soar 
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues 
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. 
And chiefly Thou, Spirit, that dost i^refer 
Before all temples the upright heart and pure. 
Instruct me, for Thou know'st ; Thou from- the first 
Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, 20 

Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss, 
And madest it pregnant : what in me is dark 
Illumine, what is low raise and support ; 
That to the highth of this great argument 
I may assert Eternal Providence, 
And justify the ways of God to men. 

29 



30 Pa7'adise Lost. 

Say first — for Heaven hides nothing from Thy view, 
Nor the deep tract of Hell — say first what cause 
Moved our grand parents, in that happy state. 
Favored of Heaven so highly, to fall off • 30 

Fr-om their Creator, and transgress his will 
For one restraint, lords of the world besides. 
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt ? 

The infernal Serpent ; he it was, whose guile. 
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived 
The Mother of Mankind, what time his pride 
Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host 
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring 
To set himself in glory above his peers, 
He trusted to have equalled the Most High, 40 

If he opposed ; and with ambitious aim 
Against the throne and monarchy of God 
Raised impious war in Heaven, and battle proud, 
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 
With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell 
In adamantine chains and j)enal fire. 
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. 

Nine times the space that measures day and night 50 

To mortal men, he with his horrid crew 
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf. 
Confounded, though immortal. But his doom 
Reserved him to more wrath ; for now the thought 
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain 
Torments him ; round he throws his baleful eyes. 
That witnessed huge affliction and dismay. 
Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. 
At once, as far as Angels ken, he views 
The dismal situation waste and wild : 60 

A dungeon horrible on all sides round 



Book L 31 

As one great furnace flamed ; yet from those flames 

'No light ; but rather darkness visible 

Served only to discover sights of woe, 

E-egions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 

And rest can never dwell, hope never comes 

That comes to all ; but torture without end 

Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed 

With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. 

Such place Eternal Justice had prepared 70 

For those rebellious ; here their prison ordained 

In utter darkness, and their portion set. 

As far removed from God and light of Heaven 

As from the Centre thrice to the utmost pole. 

Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell ! 

There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed 

With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, 

He soon discerns ; and, weltering by his side. 

One next himself in power, and next in crime. 

Long after known in Palestine, and named 80 

Beelzebub. To whom the Arch-Enemy, 

And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words 

Breaking the horrid silence, thus began : — 

^ If thou beest he — but Oh how fallen ! how changed 
From him, — who in the happy realms of light. 
Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine 
Myriads, though bright ! if he whom mutual league, 
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope 
And hazard in the glorious enterprise. 

Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 90 

In equal ruin : into what pit thou seest 
From what highth fallen ; so much the stronger proved 
He with his thunder : and till then who knew 
The force of those dire arms ? Yet not for those, 
Nor what the potent Victor in his rage 
Can else inflict, do I repent, or change. 



32 Paradise Lost. 

Though changed in outward histre, that fixed mind, 

And high disdain from sense of injured merit, 

That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, 

And to the fierce contention brought along lOO 

Innumerable force of Spirits armed, 

That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring. 

His utmost power with adverse power opposed 

In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, 

And shook his throne. What though the field be lost ? 

All is not lost : the unconquerable will. 

And study of revenge, immortal hate, 

And courage never to submit or yield : 

And what is else not to be overcome ? 

That glory never shall his wrath or might no 

Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace 

With suppliant knee, and deify his power 

Who, from the terror of this arm, so late 

Doubted his empire — that were low indeed ; 

That were an ignominy and shame beneath 

This downfall ; since by fate the strength of gods 

And this empyreal substance cannot fail ; 

Since, through experience of this great event. 

In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, 

We may with more successful hope resolve 120 

To wage by force or guile eternal war. 

Irreconcilable to our grand foe. 

Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy 

Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven.' 

So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain. 
Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair ; 
And him thus answered soon his bold compeer : — 

< Prince ! Chief of many throned Powers ! 
That led the embattled Seraphim to war 
Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds 130 

Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King, 



Book L 33 

And put to proof his high supremacy, 

Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate ! 

Too well I see and rue the dire event 

That with sad overthrow and foul defeat 

Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host 

In horrible destruction laid thus low. 

As far as gods and Heavenly essences 

Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains 

Invincible, and vigor soon returns, 140 

Though all our glory extinct, and happy state 

Here swallowed up in endless misery. 

But what if he our Conqueror (whom I now 

Of force believe almighty, since no less 

Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours) 

Have left us this our spirit and strength entire. 

Strongly to suffer and support our pains, 

That we may so suffice his vengeful ire ; 

Or do him mightier service, as his thralls 

By right of war, whate'er his business be, 150 

Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire. 

Or do his errands in the gloomy Deep ? 

What can it then avail, though yet we feel 

Strength undiminished, or eternal being 

To undergo eternal punishment ? ' 

Whereto with speedy words the Arch-Fiend replied : — 
' Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, 
Doing or suffering : but of this be sure — 
To do aught good never will be our task, 
But ever to do ill our sole delight, 160 

As being the contrary to his high will 
Whom we resist. If then his providence 
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, 
Our labor must be to pervert that end. 
And out of good still to find means of evil ; 
Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps 



34 Paradise Lost. 

Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb 

His inmost counsels from their destined aim. 

But see ! the angry Victor hath recalled 

His ministers of vengeance and pursuit 170 

Back to the gates of Heaven ; the sulphurous hail, 

Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid 

The fiery surge that from the precipice 

Of Heaven received us falling ; and the thunder, 

Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, 

Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now 

To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep. 

Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn 

Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. 

Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, 180 

The seat of desolation, void of light, 

Save what the glimmering of these livid flames 

Casts pale and dreadful ? Thither let us tend 

From off the tossing of these fiery waves ; 

There rest, if any rest can harbor there ; 

And, reassembling our afflicted powers, 

Consult how we may henceforth most offend 

Our Enemy, our own loss how repair, 

How overcome this dire calamity, 

What reinforcement we may gain from hope, 190 

If not what resolution from despair.' 

Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, 
^^^ith head uplift above the wave, and eyes 
That sparkling blazed ; his other parts besides, 
Prone on the flood, extended long and large. 
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge 
As whom the fables name of monstrous size, 
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove, 
Briareos or Typhon, whom the den 

By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast 200 

Leviathan, which God of all his works 



Book I. 35 

Created hiigest that swim the ocean-stream. 

Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam. 

The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff 

Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell. 

With fixed anchor in his scaly rind. 

Moors by his side under the lee, while night 

Invests the sea, and wished morn delays. 

So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay. 

Chained on the burning lake ; nor ever thence 210 

Had risen or heaved his head, but that the will 

And high permission of all-ruling Heaven 

Left him at large to his own dark designs, 

That with reiterated crimes he might 

Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 

Evil to others, and enraged might see 

How all his malice served but to bring forth 

Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shewn 

On Man by him seduced ; but on himself 

Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured. 220 

Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool 
His mighty stature ; on each hand the flames 
Driven backward slope their pointing spires, and, rolled 
In billows, leave in the midst a horrid vale. 
Then with expanded wings he steers his flight 
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air. 
That felt unusual weight ; till on dry land 
He lights — if it were land that ever burned 
With solid, as the lake with liquid fire. 
And such appeared in hue, as when the force 230 

Of subterranean wind transports a hill 
Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side 
Of thundering ^tna, whose combustible 
And fuelled entrails thence conceiving fire, 
Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds. 
And leave a singed bottom all involved 



36 Paradise Lost. 

With stench and smoke : such resting fonnd the sole 

Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate, 

Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood 

As gods, and by their own recovered strength, 240 

Not by the sufferance of supernal power. 

' Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,' 
Said then the lost Archangel, ' this the seat 
That we must change for Heaven ? this mournful gloom 
For that celestial light ? Be it so, since he 
Who now is sovran can dispose and bid 
What shall be right : farthest from him is best, 
Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme 
Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields, 
Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail, 250 

Infernal world ! and thou, profoundest Hell, 
Receive thy new possessor, one who brings 
A mind not to be changed by place or time. 
The mind is its own place, and in itself 
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. 
What matter where, if I be still the same. 
And what I should be, all but less than he 
Whom thunder hath made greater ? Here at least 
We shall be free ; the Almighty hath not built 
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence : 260 

Here we may reign secure, and in my choice 
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell : 
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven. 
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, 
The associates and co-partners of our loss, 
Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool. 
And call them not to share with us their part 
In this unhappy mansion, or once more 
With rallied arms to try what may be yet 
Regained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell ? ' 270 

So Satan spake ; and him Beelzebub 



Boole I. 37 

Thus answered: — 'Leader of those armies bright 

Which but the Omnipotent none could have foiled, 

If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge 

Of hope in fears and dangers — heard so oft 

In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge 

Of battle when it raged, in all assaults 

Their surest signal — they will soon resume 

New courage and revive, though now they lie 

Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 280 

As we erewhile, astounded and amazed : 

No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth ! ' 

He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend 
Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield. 
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round. 
Behind him cast. The broad circumference 
Hung on his shoulders like "the moon, whose orb 
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views 
At evening from the top of Fesole, 

Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 290 

Hivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. 
His spear — to equal which the tallest pine 
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand — 
He walked with, to support uneasy steps 
Over the burning marie, not like those steps 
On Heaven's azure ; and the torrid clime 
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. 
Nathless he so endured, till on the beach 
Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called 300 

His legions, Angel forms, who lay entranced, 
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades 
High over-arched embower ; or scattered sedge 
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 
Hath vexed the Eed-Sea coast, whose waves overthrew 



38 Paradise Lost. 

Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, 

While with perfidious hatred they pursued 

The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld 

From the safe shore their floating carcases 310 

And broken chariot-wheels : so thick bestrown. 

Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood, 

Under amazement of their hideous change. 

He called so loud that all the hollow deep 

Of Hell resounded: — 'Princes, Potentates, 

Warriors ! the Flower of Heaven, once yours ; now lost, 

If such astonishment as this can seize 

Eternal Spirits ! Or have ye chosen this place 

After the toil of battle to repose 

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 320 

To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven ? 

Or in this abject posture have ye sworn 

To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds 

Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood 

With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon 

His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern 

The advantage, and descending tread us down 

Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts 

Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf ? 

Awake, arise, or be forever fallen ! ^ 330 

They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung 
Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch. 
On duty sleeping found by whom they dread, 
Eouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. 
Nor did they not perceive the evil plight 
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel ; 
Yet t6 their General's voice they soon obeyed 
Innumerable. As when the potent rod 
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day. 

Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud 340 

Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 



Book L 39 

That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung 

Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile : 

So numberless were those bad Angels seen 

Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell, 

'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding hres ; 

Till, as a signal given, the uplifted spear 

Of their great Sultan waving to direct 

Their course, in even balance down they light 

On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain : 350 

A multitude like which the populous North 

Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass 

E,hene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons 

Came like a deluge on the South, and spread 

Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. 

Forthwith, from every squadron and each band, 

The heads and leaders thither haste where stood 

Their great Commander ; godlike shapes, and forms 

Excelling human, princely Dignities, 

And Powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones ; 360 

Though of their names in Heavenly records now 

Be no memorial, blotted out and rased 

By their rebellion from the Books of Life. 

Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve 

Got them new names, till, wandering o'er the Earth, 

Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man, 

By falsities and lies the greatest part 

Of mankind they corrupted to forsake 

God their Creator ; and the invisible 

Glory of him that made them, to transform 370 

Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 

With gay religions full of pomp and gold, 

And devils to adore for deities : 

Then were they known to men by various names, 

And various idols through the heathen world. 

Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, 



40 Paradise Lost. 

E-oiised from the slumber on that fiery couch, 

At their great Emperor's call, as next in worth 

Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, 

While the x^romiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. 380 

The chief were those who, from the pit of Hell 
Roaming to seek their prey on Earth, durst fix 
Their seats long after next the seat of God, 
Their altars by his altar, gods adored 
Among the nations round, and durst abide 
Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned 
Between the Cherubim ; yea, often placed 
Within his sanctuary itself their shrines. 
Abominations ; and with cursed things 
His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, 390 

And with their darkness durst affront his light. 
First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears, 
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 
Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire 
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 
Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain. 
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such 
Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart 400 

Of Solomon he led by fraud to build 
His temple right against the temple of God 
On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove 
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. 
Next Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, 
From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild 
Of southmost Abarim ; in Hesebon 
And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond 

The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, 410 

And Eleale to the Asphaltic pool. 



Book I. 41 

Peor his other name, when he enticed 

Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, 

To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. 

Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged 

Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove 

Of ^loloch homicide, lust hard by hate ; 

Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell. 

With these came they who, from the bordering flood 

Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts 420 

Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names 

Of Baalim and Ashtaroth — those male. 

These feminine. For Spirits, when they please, 

Can either sex assume, or both; so soft 

And uncompounded is their essence pure, 

Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, 

Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones. 

Like cumbrous flesh; but, in what shape they choose, 

Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure. 

Can execute their aery purposes, 430 

And works of love or enmity fulfil. 

For those the race of Israel oft forsook 

Their living Strength, and unfrequented left 

His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 

To bestial gods ; for which their heads as low 

Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear 

Of despicable foes. With these in troop 

Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called 

Astarte, Queen of Heaven, Avith crescent horns; 

To whose bright image nightly by the moon 440 

Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs ; 

In Sion also not unsung, where stood 

Her temple on the offensive mountain, built 

By that uxorious king whose heart, though large, 

Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell 

To idols foul. Thammiiz came next behind. 



42 Paradise Lost, 

Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 

The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 

In amorous ditties all a summer's day, 

While smooth Adonis from his native rock 450 

Ban purple to the sea, supposed with blood 

Of Thammuz yearly wounded : the love-tale 

Infected Sion's daughters with like heat, 

Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch 

Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led. 

His eye surveyed the dark idolatries 

Of alienated Judah. Next came one 

Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark 

Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off 

In his own temple, on the grunsel-edge, 460 

Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshipers : 

Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man 

And downward fish ; yet had his temple high 

Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast 

Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, 

And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. 

Him followed Bimmon, whose delightful seat 

Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks 

Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. 

He also against the house of God was bold : 470 

A leper once he lost, and gained a king, 

Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew 

God's altar to disparage and displace 

For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn 

His odious offerings, and adore the gods 

Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared 

A crew who, under names of old renown, 

Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train, 

With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused 

Fanatic Egypt and her priests, to seek 480 

Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms 



Booh L 43 

Rather than human. Nor did Israel scape 

The infection, when their borrowed gold composed 

The calf in Oreb ; and the rebel king 

Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan, 

Likening his Maker to the grazed ox — 

Jehovah, who, in one night, when he passed 

From Egypt marching, equalled with one stroke 

Both her first-born and all her bleating gods. 

Belial came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd 490 

Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love 

Vice for itself. To him no temple stood 

Or altar smoked ; yet who more oft than he 

In temples and at altars, when the priest 

Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled 

With lust and violence the house of God ? 

In courts and palaces he also reigns, 

And in luxurious cities, where the noise 

Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers. 

And injury and outrage ; and when night 500 

Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons 

Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. 

Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night 

In Gibeah, when the hospitable door 

Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape. 

These were the prime in order and in might ; 
The rest were long to tell ; though far renowned 
The Ionian gods — of Javan's issue held 
Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, 
Their boasted parents — Titan, Heaven's first-born, 5io 

With his enormous brood, and birthright seized 
By younger Saturn; he from mightier Jove, 
His own and Rhea's son, like measure found ; 
So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete 
And Ida known, thence on the snowy top 
Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air, 



44 Paradue Lost. 

Their highest Heaven ; or on the Delphian cliff, 

Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds 

Of Doric land ; or who with Saturn old 

Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields, 520 

And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost isles. 

All these and more came flocking ; but with looks 
Downcast and damp, yet such wherein appeared 
Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their Chief 
Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost 
In loss itself ; which on his countenance cast 
Like doubtful hue. But he, his wonted pride 
Soon recollecting, with high words that bore 
Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised 
Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears : 530 

Then straight commands that at the warlike sound 
Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared 
His mighty standard. That proud honor claimed 
Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall : 
Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 
The imperial ensign, which, full high advanced, 
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind, 
With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed. 
Seraphic arms and trophies ; all the while 
Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds : 540 

At which the universal host up-sent 
A shout that tore Hell's concave, and beyond 
Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. 
All in a moment through the gloom were seen 
Ten thousand banners rise into the air. 
With orient colors waving ; with them rose 
A forest huge of spears ; and thronging helms 
Appeared, and serried shields in thick array 
Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move 
In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood 550 

Of flutes and soft recorders — such as raised 



Book L 45 

To highth of noblest temper heroes old 

Arming to battle, and instead of rage 

Deliberate valor breathed, firm and unmoved 

With dread of death to flight or foul retreat; 

Nor wanting power to n^itigate and swage 

With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase 

Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain 

From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, 

Breathing united force with fixed thought, 560 

Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed 

Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil ; and now 

Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front 

Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise 

Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield, 

Awaiting what command their mighty chief 

Had to impose. He through the armed files 

Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse 

The Avhole battalion views — their order due. 

Their visages and stature as of gods ; 570 

Their number last he sums. And now his heart 

Distends with pride, and hardening in his strength 

Glories ; for never, since created man. 

Met such embodied force as, named with these, 

Could merit more than that small infantry 

Warred on by cranes : though all the giant brood 

Of Phlegra with the heroic race were joined 

That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side 

Mixed with auxiliar gods ; and what resounds 

In fable or romance of Uther's son, 580 

Begirt with British and Armoric knights ; 

And all who since, baptized or infidel, 

Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, 

Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond ; 

Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore 

When Charlemain with all his peerage fell 



46 Paradise Lost. 

By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond 

Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed 

Their dread commander. He, above the rest 

In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 590 

Stood like a tower ; his form had yet not lost 

All her original brightness, nor appeared 

Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess 

Of glory obscured : as when the sun new-risen 

Looks through the horizontal misty air 

Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon. 

In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 

On half the nations, and with fear of change 

Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone 

Above them all the Archangel : but his face 600 

Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care 

Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows 

Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride 

Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast 

Signs of remorse and passion, to behold 

The fellows of his crime, the followers rather 

(Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned 

Forever now to have their lot in pain ; 

Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced 

Of Heaven, and from eternal splendors flung 610 

For his revolt ; yet faithful how they stood. 

Their glory withered : as, when Heaven's fire 

Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines, 

With singed top their stately growth, though bare. 

Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared 

To speak 5 whereat their doubled ranks they bend 

From wing to wing, and half enclose him round 

With all his peers : attention held them mute. 

Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn. 

Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth : at last 620 

Words interwove with sighs found out their way : — 



Book L 47 

' myriads of immortal Spirits ! Powers 
Matchless, but with the Almighty ! — and that strife 
Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, 
As this place testifies, and this dire change. 
Hateful to utter. But what power of mind, 
Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth 
Of knowledge past or present, could have feared 
How such united force of gods, how such 
As stood like these, could ever know repulse ? 630 

For who can yet believe, though after loss. 
That all these puissant legions, whose exile 
Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to reascend. 
Self-raised, and repossess their native seat ? 
For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, 
If counsels different, or dangers shunned 
By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns 
Monarch, in Heaven, till then as one secure 
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute. 
Consent or custom, and his regal state 640 

Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed ; 
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall., 
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own, 
So as not either to provoke, or dread 
New war provoked. Our better part remains 
To work in close design, by fraud or guile. 
What force effected not ; that he no less 
At length from us may find. Who overcomes 
By force hath overcome but half his foe. 
Space may produce new worlds ; whereof so rife 650 

There went a fame in Heaven that He erelong 
Intended to create, and therein plant 
A generation Avhom his choice regard 
Should favor equal to the Sons of Heaven. 
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps 
Our first eruption : thither or elsewhere ; 



48 Paradise Lost. 

For this infernal pit shall never hold 

Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor the Abyss 

Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts 

Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired, 660 

For who can think submission ? War, then, war 

Open or understood, must be resolved.' 

He spake ; and, to confirm his words, out-flew 
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs 
Of mighty Cherubim ; the sudden blaze 
Far round illumined Hell. Highly they raged 
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms 
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war. 
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven. 

There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 670 

Belched fire and rolling smoke ; the rest entire 
Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign 
That in his womb was hid metallic ore, 
The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with sj^eed, 
A numerous brigad hastened : as when bands 
Of pioners, with spade and pickaxe armed, 
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, 
Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on, 
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell 679 

From Heaven, for even in Heaven his looks and thoughts 
Were always downward bent, admiring more 
The riches of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold, 
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed 
In vision beatific. By him first 
Men also, and by his suggestion taught. 
Ransacked the Centre, and with impious hands 
Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth 
For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew 
Opened into the hill a spacious wound. 

And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690 

That riches grow in Hell ; that soil may best 



Book I. 49 

Deserve the precious bane. And here let those 

Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell 

Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings. 

Learn how their greatest monuments of fame. 

And strength, and art, are easily outdone 

By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour 

What in an age they, with incessant toil 

And hands innumerable, scarce perform. 

Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, 700 

That underneath had veins of liquid fire 

Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude 

With wondrous art founded the massy ore, 

Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion-dross. 

A third as soon had formed within the ground 

A various mould, and from the boiling cells 

By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook : 

As in an organ, from one blast of wind. 

To many a roAv of pipes the sound-board breathes. 

Anon out of the earth a fabric huge 710 

Rose like an exhalation, with the sound 

Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet — 

Built like a temple, where pilasters round 

Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid 

With golden architrave ; nor did there want 

Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven : 

The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon, 

Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence 

Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine 

Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat 720 

Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove 

In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile 

Stood fixed her stately highth, and straight the doors. 

Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 

Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth 

And level pavement : from the arched roof, 



60 Paradise Lost. 

Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 

Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 

With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light 

As from a sky. The hasty multitude 730 

Admiring entered, and the work some praise, 

And some the architect. His hand was known 

In Heaven by many a towered structure high, 

Where sceptred Angels held their residence. 

And sat as Princes, whom the supreme King 

Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, 

Each in his Hierarchy, the Orders bright. 

Nor was his name unheard or unadored 

In ancient Greece ; and in Ausonian land 

Men called him Mulciber ; and how he fell 740 

From Heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove 

Sheer o'er the crystal battlements : from morn 

To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 

A summer's day ; and with the setting sun 

Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star. 

On Lemnos, the J^gsean isle. Thus they relate, 

Erring ; for he with this rebellious rout 

Fell long before ; nor aught availed him now 

To have built in Heaven high towers ; nor did he scape 

By all his engines, but was headlong sent 750 

With his industrious crew to build in Hell. 

Meanwhile the winged haralds, by command 
Of sovran power, with awful ceremony 
And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim 
A solemn council forthwith to be held 
At Pandemonium, the high capital 
Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called 
From every band and squared regiment 
By place or choice the worthiest ; they anon 
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came 760 

Attended. All access was thronged, the gates 
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall 



Book L 51 

(Thougli like a covered field, where champions bold 

Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair 

Defied the best of Panim chivalry 

To mortal combat, or career with lance) 

Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, 

Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees 

In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides. 

Pour forth their populous youth about the hive 770 

In clusters ; they among fresh dews and flowers 

Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, 

The suburb of their straw-built citadel, 

New rubbed with balm, expatiate and confer 

Their state-affairs. So thick the aery crowd 

Swarmed and were straightened ; till, the signal given, 

Behold a wonder ! they but now who seemed 

In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, 

Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room 

Throng numberless, like that pygmean race 780 

Beyond the Indian mount ; or faery elves, 

Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side 

Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, 

Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon 

Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth 

Wheels her pale course ; they, on their mirth and dance 

Intent, with jocund music charm his ear; 

At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. 

Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms 

Eeduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 790 

Though without number still, amidst the hall 

Of that infernal court. But far within. 

And in their own dimensions like themselves, 

The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim 

In close recess and secret conclave sat, 

A thousand demi-gods on golden seats. 

Frequent and full. After short silence then, 

And summons read, the great consult began. 



PARADISE LOST. 



BOOK II. 



THE ARGUMENT. 

The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle 
be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven : some advise it, 
others dissuade. A third proposal is preferred, mentioned before 
by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in 
Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature, 
equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about this time to be 
created. Their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search: 
Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage ; is honored and 
applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several 
ways and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, 
to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey 
to Hell-gates, finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them ; 
by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great 
gulf between Hell and Heaven ; with what difficulty he passes 
through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, to the sight 
of this new World which he sought. 



PARADISE LOST. 

BOOK II. 

High on a throne of royal state, which far 

Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, 

Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 

Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, 

Satan exalted sat, by merit raised 

To that bad eminence ; and, from despair 

Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires 

Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue 

Vain war with Heaven ; and, by success untaught. 

His proud imaginations thus displayed : — lo 

^ Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven ! 
Tor since no deep within her gulf can hold 
Immortal vigor, though oppressed and fallen, 
I give not Heaven for lost : from this descent 
Celestial Virtues rising will appear 
More glorious and more dread than from no fall, 
And trust themselves to fear no second fate. 
Me though just right, and the fixed laws of Heaven, 
Did first create your leader, next, free choice. 
With what besides, in counsel or in fight, 20 

Hath been achieved of merit, yet this loss. 
Thus far at least recovered, hath much more 
Established in a safe unenvied throne. 
Yielded with full consent. The happier state 
In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw 
Envy from each inferior j but who here 

55 



66 Paradise Lost. 

Will envy whom the highest place exposes 

Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim 

Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share 

Of endless pain ? Where there is then no good 30 

For which to strive, no strife can grow up there 

From faction ; for none sure will claim in Hell 

Precedence, none whose portion is so small 

Of present pain that with ambitious mind 

Will covet more. With this advantage then 

To union, and firm faith, and firm accord, 

More than can be in Heaven, we now return 

To claim our just inheritance of old. 

Surer to prosper than prosperity 

Could have assured us ; and by what best way, 40 

Whether of open war or covert guile, 

We now debate ; who can advise may speak.' 

He ceased ; and next him Moloch, sceptred king, 
Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest Spirit 
That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair. 
His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed 
Equal in strength, and rather than be less 
Cared not to be at all ; with that care lost 
Went all his fear : of God, or Hell, or worse, 
He recked not, and these words thereafter spake : — 50 

^ My sentence is for open war. Of wiles, 
More unexpert, I boast not : them let those 
Contrive who need, or when they need ; not now. 
For while they sit contriving, shall the rest — 
Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait 
The signal to ascend — sit lingering here, 
Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place 
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame. 
The prison of his tyranny who reigns 

By our delay ? No ! let us rather choose, 60 

Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once 



Book 11. 67 

O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way, 

Turning our tortures into horrid arms 

Against the Torturer; when to meet the noise 

Of his almighty engine he shall hear 

Infernal thunder, and for lightning see 

Black fire and horror shot with equal rage 

Among his Angels, and his throne itself 

Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire. 

His own invented torments. But perhaps 70 

The way seems difficult and steep to scale 

With upright wing against a higher foe. 

Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench 

Of that forgetful lake benumb not still, 

That in our proper motion we ascend 

Up to our native seat ; descent and fall 

To us is adverse. Who but felt of late. 

When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear 

Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, 

With what compulsion and laborious flight 80 

We sunk thus low ? The ascent is easy then. 

The event is feared : should we again provoke 

Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find 

To our destruction — if there be in Hell 

Fear to be worse destroyed ! What can be worse 

Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned 

In this abhorred deep to utter woe ; 

Where pain of unextinguishable fire 

Must exercise us, without hope of end. 

The vassals of his anger, when the scourge 90 

Inexorably, and the torturing hour. 

Calls us to penance ? More destroyed than thus. 

We should be quite abolished, and expire. 

What fear we then ? what doubt we to incense 

His utmost ire ? w^hich, to the highth enraged, 

Will either quite consume us, and reduce 



58 Paradise Lost. 

To nothing this essential — happier far 

Than miserable to have eternal being ! — 

Or if our substance be indeed divine, 

And cannot cease to be, we are at worst 100 

On this side nothing ; and by proof we feel 

Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven, 

And with perpetual inroads to alarm, 

Though inaccessible, his fatal throne : 

Which, if not victory, is yet revenge.' 

He ended frowning, and his look denounced 
Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous 
To less than gods. On the other side up rose 
Belial, in act more graceful and humane ; 
A fairer person lost not Heaven ; he seemed lio 

Eor dignity composed, and high exploit. 
But all was false and hollow ; though his tongue 
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear 
The better reason, to perplex and dash 
Maturest counsels : for his thoughts were low ; 
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
Timorous and slothful ; yet he pleased the ear : 
And with persuasive accent thus began : — 

' I should be much for open war, Peers, 
As not behind in hate, if what was urged 120 

Main reason to persuade immediate war 
Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast 
Ominous conjecture on the whole success ; 
When he who most excels in fact of arms. 
In what he counsels and in what excels 
Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair 
And utter dissolution, as the scope 
Of all his aim, after some dire revenge. 
First, what revenge ? The towers of Heaven are filled 
With armed watch, that render all access 130 

Impregnable : oft on the bordering deep 



Book 11. 59 

Encamp their legions, or with obscure wing 

Scout far and wide into the realm of Night, 

Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way 

By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise 

With blackest insurrection, to confound 

Heaven's purest light, yet our great Enemy, 

All incorruptible, would on his throne 

Sit unpolluted, and the ethereal mould, 

Incapable of stain, would soon expel 140 

Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire. 

Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope 

Is flat despair : we must exasperate 

The Almighty Victor to spend all his rage ; 

And that must end us, that must be our cure — • 

To be no more. Sad cure ! for who would lose, 

Though full of pain, this intellectual being. 

Those thoughts that wander through eternity, 

To perish rather, swallowed up and lost 

In the wide womb of uncreated Night, 150 

Devoid of sense and motion ? And who knows, 

Let this be good, whether our angry foe 

Can give it, or will ever ? How he can 

Is doubtful ; that he never will is sure. 

Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire. 

Belike through impotence, or unaware. 

To give his enemies their wish, and end 

Them in his anger, whom his anger saves 

To punish endless ? " Wherefore cease we, then ? '' 

Say they who counsel war ; " we are decreed, 160 

Reserved, and destined to eternal woe ; 

Whatever doing, what can we suffer more. 

What can we suffer worse ? " Is this then worst, 

Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms ? 

What when we fled amain, pursued and strook 

With Heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought 



60 Paradise Lost. 

The Deep to shelter iis ? this Hell then seemed 

A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay 

Chained on the burning lake ? that sure Avas worse. 

What if the breath that kindled those grim fires, 170 

Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, 

And plunge us in the jflames ? or from above 

Should intermitted vengeance arm again 

His red right hand to plague us ? What if all 

Her stores were opened, and this firmament 

Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire, 

Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall 

One day upon our heads ; while we perhaps. 

Designing or exhorting glorious war. 

Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled, 180 

Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey 

Of racking whirlwinds, or forever sunk 

Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains ; 

There to converse with everlasting groans, 

Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved. 

Ages of hopeless end ! This would be worse. 

War therefore, open or concealed, alike 

My voice dissuades ; for what can force or guile 

With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye 

Views all things at one view ? He from Heaven's highth 

All these our motions vain sees and derides ; 191 

Not more almighty to resist our might 

Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles. 

Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heaven 

Thus trampled, thus expelled to suffer here 

Chains and these torments ? Better these than worse. 

By my advice ; since fate inevitable 

Subdues us, and omnipotent decree. 

The Victor's will. To suffer, as to do, 

Our strength is equal, nor the law unjust 200 

That so ordains : this was at first resolved, 



Booh II. 61 

If we were wise, against so great a foe 

Contending, and so doubtful what might fall. 

I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold 

And venturous, if that fail them, shrink, and fear 

What yet they know must follow — to endure 

Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain. 

The sentence of their conqueror. This is now 

Our doom ; which if we can sustain and bear, 

Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit 210 

His anger, and perhaps, thus far removed. 

Not mind us not offending, satisfied 

With what is punished ; whence these raging fires 

Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. 

Our purer essence then will overcome 

Their noxious vapor, or, inured, not feel ; 

Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed 

In temper and in nature, Avill receive 

Familiar the fierce heat ; and, void of pain. 

This horror will grow mild, this darkness light ; 220 

Besides what hope the never-ending flight 

Of future days may bring, what chance, what change 

Worth waiting, — since our present lot appears 

For happy though but ill, for ill not worst, 

If we procure not to ourselves more woe.' 

Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, 
Counselled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, 
Not peace ; and after him thus Mammon spake : — 

' Either to disenthrone the King of Heaven 
We war, if war be best, or to regain 230 

Our own right lost. Him to unthrone we then 
May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield 
To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife. 
The former, vain to hope, argues as vain 
The latter ; for what place can be for us 
Within Heaven's bound, unless Heaven's Lord Supreme 



62 Paradise Lost. 

We overpower ? Suppose lie should relent, 

And publish grace to all, on promise made 

Of new subjection ; with what eyes could we 

Stand in his presence, humble, and receive 240 

Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne 

AVith warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing 

Forced Halleluiahs ; while he lordly sits 

Our envied sovran, and his altar breathes 

Ambrosial odors and ambrosial flowers. 

Our servile offerings ? This must be our task 

In Heaven, this our delight. How wearisome 

Eternity so spent in worship paid 

To whom we hate ! Let us not then pursue. 

By force impossible, by leave obtained 250 

Unacceptable, though in Heaven, our state 

Of splendid vassalage ; but rather seek 

Our own good from ourselves, and from our own 

Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess, 

Free, and to none accountable, preferring 

Hard liberty before the easy yoke 

Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear 

Then most conspicuous, when great things of small. 

Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse, 

We can create, and in what place soe'er 260 

Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain 

Through labor and endurance. This deep world 

Of darkness do we dread ? How oft amidst 

Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all-ruling Sire 

Choose to reside, his glory unobscured. 

And with the majesty of darkness round 

Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar. 

Mustering their rage, and Heaven resembles Hell ! 

As he our darkness, cannot we his light 

Imitate when we please ? This desert soil 270 

Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold ; 



Booh IL 63 

Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise 

Magnificence ; and what can Heaven show more ? 

Our torments also may in length of time 

Become our elements, these piercing fires 

As soft as now severe, our temper changed 

Into their temper ; which must needs remove 

The sensible of pain. All things invite 

To peaceful counsels, and the settled state 

Of order, how in safety best we may 280 

Compose our present evils, with regard 

Of what we are and where, dismissing quite 

All thoughts of war. Ye have what I advise.' 

He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled 
The assembly, as when hollow rocks retain 
The sound of blustering winds, which all night long 
Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull 
Seafaring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance. 
Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay 

After the tempest : such applause was heard 290 

As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleased. 
Advising peace ; for such another field 
They dreaded worse than Hell ; so much the fear 
Of thunder and the sword of Michael 
Wrought still within them ; and no less desire 
To found this nether empire, which might rise. 
By policy, and long process of time. 
In emulation opposite to Heaven. 
Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom, 
Satan except, none higher sat, with grave 300 

Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 
A pillar of state ; deep on his front engraven 
Deliberation sat and public care ; 
And princely counsel in his face yet shone. 
Majestic, though in ruin. Sage he stood. 
With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 



64 Paradise Lost. 

The weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look 

Drew audience and attention still as night 

Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake : — 

' Thrones and Imperial Powers, Offspring of Heaven, 310 
Ethereal Virtues ! or these titles now 
Must we renounce, and, changing style, be called 
Princes of Hell ? for so the popular vote 
Inclines — here to continue, and build up here 
A growing empire ; doubtless ! while we dream, 
And know not that the King of Heaven hath doomed 
This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat 
Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt 
From Heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league 
Banded against his throne, but to remain 320 

In strictest bondage, though thus far removed. 
Under the inevitable curb, reserved 
His captive multitude. For he, be sure. 
In highth or depth, still first and last will reign 
Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part 
By our revolt, but over Hell extend 
His empire, and with iron sceptre rule 
Us here, as with his golden those in Heaven. 
What sit we then projecting peace and war ? 
War hath determined us, and foiled with loss 330 

Irreparable ; terms of peace yet none 
Vouchsafed or sought ; for what peace will be given 
To us enslaved, but custody severe. 
And stripes, and arbitrary punishment 
Inflicted ? and what peace can we return, 
But, to our power, hostility and hate. 
Untamed reluctance, and revenge, though slow. 
Yet ever plotting how the Conqueror least 
May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice 
In doing what we most in suffering feel ? 340 

Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need 



Book 11. 65 

With dangerous expedition to invade 

Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, 

Or ambush from the Deep. What if we find 

Some easier enterprise ? There is a place 

(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven 

Err not), another World, the happy seat 

Of some new race called Man, about this time 

To be created like to us, though less 

In power and excellence, but favored more 350 

Of him who rules above ; so was his will 

Pronounced among the gods, and by an oath 

That shook Heaven's whole circumference, confirmed. 

Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn 

What creatures there inhabit, of what mould 

Or substance, how endued, and what their power. 

And where their weakness : how attempted best, 

By force or subtlety. Though Heaven be shut, 

And Heaven's high Arbitrator sit secure 

In his own strength, this place may lie exposed, 360 

The utmost border of his. kingdom, left 

To their defence who hold it ; here, perhaps, 

Some advantageous act may be achieved 

By sudden onset : either with Hell-fire 

To waste his whole creation, or possess 

All as our own, and drive, as we are driven, 

The puny habitants ; or if not drive. 

Seduce them to our party, that their God 

May prove their foe, and with repenting hand 

Abolish his own works. This would surpass 370 

Common revenge, and interrupt his joy 

In our confusion, and our joy upraise 

In his disturbance ; when his darling Sons, 

Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse 

Their frail original, and faded bliss — 

Faded so soon ! Advise if this be worth 



6Q Paradise Lost. 

Attempting, or to sit in darkness here 

Hatching vain empires.' Thus Beelzebub 

Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised 

By Satan, and in part proposed ; for whence, 380 

But from the author of all ill, could spring 

So deep a malice, to confound the race 

Of Mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell 

To mingle and involve, done all to spite 

The great Creator ? But their spite still serves 

His glory to augment. The bold design 

Pleased highly those infernal States, and joy 

Sparkled in all their eyes ; with full assent 

They vote : whereat his speech he thus renews : — ■ 

^ Well have ye judged, well ended long debate, 390 

Synod of gods ! and, like to what ye are. 
Great things resolved ; which from the lowest deep 
Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate. 
Nearer our ancient seat — perhaps in view 
Of those bright confines, whence, with neighboring arms 
And opportune excursion, we may chance 
K-e-enter Heaven ; or else in some mild zone 
Dwell not unvisited of Pleaven's fair light. 
Secure, and at the brightening orient beam 
Purge off this gloom ; the soft delicious air, 400 

To heal the scar of these corrosive fires. 
Shall breathe her balm. But first, whom shall we send 
In search of this new World ? whom shall we find 
Sufficient ? who shall tempt with wandering feet 
The dark, unbottomed, infinite Abyss, 
And through the palpable obscure find out 
His uncouth way, or spread his aery flight, 
Upborne with indefatigable wings 
Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive 

The happy isle ? What strength, what art, can then 410 
Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe 



Book 11. 67 

Through the strict senteries and stations thick 
Of Angels watching round ? Here he had need 
All circumspection : and we now no less 
Choice in our suffrage ; for on whom we send, 
The weight of all, and our last hope, relies. 

This said, he sat ; and expectation held 
His look suspense, awaiting who appeared 
To second, or oppose, or undertake 

The perilous attempt ; but all sat mute, 420 

Pondering the danger with deep thoughts ; and each 
In other's countenance read his own dismay. 
Astonished. None among the choice and prime 
Of those Heaven-warring champions could be found 
So hardy as to proffer or accept. 
Alone, the dreadful voyage ; till at last 
Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised 
Above his fellows, with monarchal pride 
Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake : — 

^ Progeny of Heaven ! Empyreal Thrones ! 430 

With reason hath deep silence and demur 
Seized us, though undismayed. Long is the way 
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light ; 
Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire. 
Outrageous to devour, immures us round 
Ninefold ; and gates of burning adamant, 
Barred over us, prohibit all egress. 
These passed, if any pass, the void profound 
Of unessential Night receives him next. 
Wide-gaping, and with utter loss of being 440 

Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf. 
If thence he scape into whatever world, 
Or unknown region, what remains him less 
Than unknown dangers and as hard escape ? 
But I should ill become this throne, Peers, 
And this imperial sovranty, adorned 



68 Paradise Lost. 

With splendor, armed with power, if aught proposed 

And judged of public moment, in the shape 

Of difficulty or danger, could deter 

Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume 450 

These royalties, and not refuse to reign, 

Refusing to accept as great a share 

Of hazard as of honor, due alike 

To him who reigns, and so much to him due 

Of hazard more, as he above the rest 

High honored sits ? Go therefore, mighty Powers, 

Terror of Heaven, though fallen ; intend at home. 

While here shall be our home, what best may ease 

The present misery, and render Hell 

More tolerable ; if there be cure or charm 460 

To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain 

Of this ill mansion ; intermit no watch 

Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad 

Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek 

Deliverance for us all : this enterprise 

None shall partake with me.' Thus saying, rose 

The Monarch, and prevented all reply ; 

Prudent, lest, from his resolution raised. 

Others among the chief might offer now 

(Certain to be refused) what erst they feared, 470 

And, so refused, might in opinion stand 

His rivals, winning cheap the high repute 

Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 

Dreaded not more the adventure than his voice 

Forbidding ; and at once with him they rose ; 

The rising all at once was as the sound 

Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend. 

With awful reverence prone ; and as a god 

Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven. 

Nor failed they to express how much they praised 480 

That for the general safety he despised 



Book 11. 69 

His own ; for neither do the Spirits damned 
Lose all their virtue ; lest bad men should boast 
Their specious deeds on Earth, which glory excites, 
Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal. 

Thus they their doubtful consultations dark 
Ended, rejoicing in their matchless Chief; 
As when from the mountain-tops the dusky clouds 
Ascending, while the North-wind sleeps, o'erspread 
Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element 490 

Scowls o'er the darkened landskip snow or shower ; 
If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet 
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive, 
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 
Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. 
shame to men ! Devil with devil damned 
Eirm concord holds ; men only disagree 
Of creatures rational, though under hope 
Of heavenly grace ; and, God proclaiming peace, 
Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife 500 

Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, 
Wasting the Earth, each other to destroy : 
As if (which might induce us to accord) 
Man had not hellish foes enow besides, 
That day and night for his destruction wait ! 

The Stygian council thus dissolved; and forth 
In order came the grand Infernal Peers ; 
Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed 
Alone the antagonist of Heaven, nor less 
Than Hell's dread Emperor, with pomp supreme, 5io 

And god-like imitated state ; him round 
A globe of fiery Seraphim enclosed 
With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms. 
Then of their session ended they bid cry 
With trumpet's regal sound the great result : 
Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim 



70 Paradise Lost. 

Put to their mouths the sounding alchymy, 

By harald's voice explained ; the hollow Abyss 

Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell 

With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim. 520 

Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised 

By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers 

Disband ; and, wandering, each his several way 

Pursues, as inclination or sad choice 

Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find 

Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain 

The irksome hours, till his great Chief return. 

Part on the plain, or in the air sublime, 

Upon the wing or in swift race contend, 

As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields ; 530 

Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal 

With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form : 

As when, to warn proud cities, war appears 

Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush 

To battle in the clouds ; before each van 

Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears, 

Till thickest legions close ; with feats of arms 

From either end of Heaven the welkin burns. 

Others, with vast Typhoean rage more fell. 

Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540 

In whirlwind ; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar : 

As when Alcides, from Q^chalia crowned 

With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore 

Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines, 

And Lichas from the top of CEta threw 

Into the Euboic sea. Others, more mild. 

Retreated in a silent valley, sing 

With notes angelical to many a harp 

Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall 

By doom of battle ; and complain that Fate 550 

Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance. 



Book 11. 71 

Their song was partial, but the harmony 

(What could it less when Spirits immortal sing ?) 

Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment 

The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet 

(For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense) 

Others apart sat on a hill retired, 

In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high 

Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate, 

Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute ; 560 

And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. 

Of good and evil much they argued then. 

Of happiness and final misery. 

Passion and apathy, and glory and shame. 

Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy ! — 

Yet with a pleasing sorcery could charm 

Pain for a while or anguish, and excite 

Fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast 

With stubborn patience as with triple steel. 

Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 570 

On bold adventure to discover wide 

That dismal world, if any clime perhaps 

Might yield them easier habitation, bend 

Four ways their flying march, along the banks 

Of four infernal rivers that disgorge 

Into the burning lake their baleful streams : 

Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate ; 

Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep ; 

Cocytus, named of lamentation loud 

Heard on the rueful stream ; fierce Phlegethon, 580 

Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. 

Far off from these a slow and silent stream, 

Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 

Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks 

Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 

Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. 



72 Paradise Lost. 

Beyond this flood a frozen continent 

Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 

Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land 

Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems 590 

Of ancient pile ; all else deep snow and ice, 

A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog 

Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old. 

Where armies whole have sunk : the parching air 

Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. 

Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled, 

At certain revolutions all the damned 

Are brought ; and feel by turns the bitter change 

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 

From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 600 

Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine 

Immovable, infixed, and frozen round 

Periods of time ; thence hurried back to fire. 

They ferry over this Lethean sound 

Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 

And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach 

The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose 

In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, 

All in one moment, and so near the brink ; 

But Fate withstands, and, to oppose the attempt, 6io 

Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards 

The ford, and of itself the water flies 

All taste of living wight, as once it fled 

The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on 

In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands, 

With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, 

Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found 

No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale 

They passed, and many a region dolorous. 

O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death — 



Book IL 73 

A universe of death, which God by curse 

Created evil, for evil only good ; 

Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds. 

Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 

Abominable, inutterable, and worse 

Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived ; 

Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimseras dire. 

Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man, 
Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, 630 

Puts on swift wings, and toward the gates of Hell 
Explores his solitary flight ; sometimes 
He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left ; 
Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars 
Up to the fiery concave towering high. 
As when far off at sea a fleet descried 
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds 
Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles 
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring 
Their spicy drugs ; they on the trading flood, 640 

Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, 
Ply stemming nightly toward the pole : so seemed 
Far off the flying Fiend. At last appear 
Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, 
And thrice threefold the gates ; three folds were brass, 
Three iron, three of adamantine rock. 
Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire. 
Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat 
On either side a formidable Shape. 

The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair, 650 

But ended foul in many a scaly fold 
Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed 
With mortal sting. About her middle round 
A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked 
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 
A hideous peal ; yet, when they list, would creep, 



74 Paradise Lost. 

If aught disturbed their noise, into her womb, 

And kennel there, yet there still barked and howled 

Within unseen. Far less abhorred than these 

Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts 660 

Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore ; 

Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called 

In secret, riding through the air she comes, 

Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance 

With Lapland witches, while the laboring moon 

Eclipses at their charms. The other Shape — 

If shape it might be called that shape had none 

Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb ; 

Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, 

For each seemed either — black it stood as Night, 670 

Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, 

And shook a dreadful dart ; what seemed his head 

The likeness of a kingly crown had on. 

Satan was now at hand, and from his seat 

The monster moving onward came as fast. 

With horrid strides ; Hell trembled as he strode. 

The undaunted Fiend what this might be admired — 

Admired, not feared ; God and his Son except, 

Created thing naught valued he nor shunned — 

And with disdainful look thus first began : — 680 

' Whence and what art thOu, execrable Shape, 
That darest, though grim and terrible, advance 
Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
To yonder gates ? Through them I mean to pass^ 
That be assured, without leave asked of thee. 
Eetire ; or taste thy folly, and learn by proof. 
Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven.' 
To whom the Goblin, full of wrath, replied : — 
' Art thou that Traitor-Angel, art thou he 
Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith, till then G90 
Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 



Book IL 75 

Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons, 

Conjured against the Highest, for which both thou 

And they, outcast from God, are here condemned 

To waste eternal days in woe and pain ? 

And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven, 

Hell-doomed, and breath'st defiance here and scorn, 

Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more. 

Thy king and lord ? Back to thy punishment. 

False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings, 700 

Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 

Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart 

Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.^ 

So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape. 
So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold 
More dreadful and deform. On the other side, 
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
Unterrified, and like a comet burned, 
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 710 

Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head 
Levelled his deadly aim ; "their fatal hands 
No second stroke intend ; and such a frown 
Each cast at the other, as when two black clouds, 
With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on 
Over the Caspian, then stand front to front 
Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow 
To join their dark encounter in mid-air : — 
So frowned the mighty combatants, that Hell 
Grew darker at their frown; so matched they stood; 720 
For never but once more was either like 
To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds 
Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung. 
Had not the snaky Sorceress that sat 
East by Hell-gate and kept the fatal key. 
Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between. 



76 Paradise Lost. 

' father, what intends thy hand/ she cried, 
' Against thy only son ? What f nry, son. 
Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart 
Against thy father's head ? and know'st for whom ? 730 

For him who sits above, and laughs^the while 
At thee ordained his drudge, to execute 
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids — 
His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both ! ' 

She spake, and at her words the hellish Pest 
Forbore : then these to her Satan returned : — 

' So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange 
Thou interposest, that my sudden hand. 
Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds 
What it intends, till first I know of thee 740 

What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why. 
In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st 
Me father, and that phantasm call'st my son. 
I know thee not, nor ever saw till now 
Sight more detestable than him and thee.' 

To whom thus the Portress of Hell-gate replied : — 
' Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem 
Now in thine eye so foul ? once deemed so fair 
In Heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight 
Of all the Seraphim with thee combined 750 

In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King, 
All on a sudden miserable pain 
Surprised thee ; dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum 
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast 
Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, 
Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, 
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed. 
Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized 
All the host of Heaven : back they recoiled afraid 
At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign 760 

Portentous held me ; but, familiar grown, 



Booh 11. 77 

I pleased, and with attractive graces won 

The most averse ; thee chiefly, who full oft 

Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing 

Becamest enamoured ; and such joy thou took'st 

With me in secret, that my womb conceived 

A growing burden. Meanwhile war arose, 

And fields were fought in Heaven ; wherein remained 

(For what could else ?) to our Almighty Foe 

Clear victory, to our part loss and rout 770 

Through all the Empyrean. Down they fell, 

Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down 

Into this deep ; and in the general fall 

I also : at which time this powerful key 

Into my hands was given, with charge to keep 

These gates forever shut, which none can pass 

Without my opening. Pensive here I sat 

Alone ; but long I sat not, till my womb. 

Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown, 

Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes. 780 

At last this odious offspring whom thou seest, 

Thine own begotten, breaking violent way. 

Tore through my entrails, that, with fear and pain 

Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew 

Transformed ; but he, my inbred enemy. 

Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart. 

Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out Death ! 

Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed 

From all her caves, and back resounded Death! 

I fled ; but he pursued (though more, it seems, 790 

Inflamed with lust than rage) and, swifter far, 

Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed, 

And, in embraces forcible and foul 

Engendering with me, of that rape begot 

These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry 

Surround me, as thou saw'st, hourly conceived 



78 Paradise Lost. 

And hourly born, with sorrow infinite 

To me ; for, when they list, into the womb 

That bred them they return, and howl, and gnaw 

My bowels, their repast ; then^ bursting forth 800 

Afresh, with conscious terrors vex me round. 

That rest or intermission none I find. 

Before mine eyes in opposition sits 

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on. 

And me, his parent, would full soon devour 

For want of other prey, but that he knows 

His end with mine involved, and knows that I 

Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane. 

Whenever that shall be : so Fate pronounced. 

But thou, father, I forewarn thee, shun 810 

His deadly arrow ; neither vainly hope 

To be invulnerable in those bright arms, 

Though tempered heavenly ; for that mortal dint. 

Save He who reigns above, none can resist.' 

She finished ; and the subtle Fiend his lore 
Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth : — 

'Dear daughter — since thou claim'st me for thy sire. 
And my fair son here show'st me, the dear pledge 
Of dalliance had with thee in Heaven, and joys 
Then sweet, now sad to mention, through dire change 820 
Befallen us unforeseen, unthought of — know, 
I come no enemy, but to set free 
From out this dark and dismal house of pain 
Both him and thee, and all the Heavenly host 
Of Spirits that, in our just pretences armed. 
Fell with us from on high. From them I go 
This uncouth errand sole, and one for all 
Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread 
The unfounded Deep, and through the void immense 
To search with wandering quest a place foretold 830 

Should be — and by concurring signs, ere now 



Booh 11. 79 

Created vast and round — a place of bliss 

In the purlieus of Heaven ; and therein placed 

A race of upstart creatures, to supply 

Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed, 

Lest Heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, 

Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught 

Than this more secret, now designed, I haste 

To know ; and, this once known, shall soon return, 

And bring ye to the place where thou and Death 840 

Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen 

Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed 

With odors : there ye shall be fed and filled 

Immeasurably ; all things shall be your prey.' 

He ceased ; for both seemed highly pleased, and Death 
Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear 
His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw 
Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced 
His mother bad, and thus be spake her sire : — 

^ The key of this eternal pit, by due 850 

And by command of Heaven's all-powerful King, 
I keep, by Him forbidden to unlock 
These adamantine gates ; against all force 
Death ready stands to interpose his dart, 
Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might. 
But what owe I to His commands above, 
Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down 
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound. 
To sit in hateful office here confined. 

Inhabitant of Heaven and Heavenly-born, 860 

Here in perpetual agony and pain. 
With terrors and with clamors compassed round 
Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed ? 
Thou art my father, thou my author, thou 
My being gavest me ; whom should I obey 
But thee ? whom follow ? Thou will bring me soon 



80 Paradise Lost. 

To that new world of light and bliss, among 

The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign 

At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems 

Thy daughter and thy darling, without end.' 870 

Thus saying, from her side the fatal key. 
Sad instrument of all our woe, she took ; 
And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train. 
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up-drew. 
Which but herself not all the Stygian Powers 
Could once have moved ; then in the key-hole turns 
The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar 
Of massy iron or solid rock with ease 
Unfastens : on a sudden open fly. 

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 880 

The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate 
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook 
Of Erebus. She opened ; but to shut 
Excelled her power : the gates wide open stood. 
That with extended wings a bannered host, 
Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through 
With horse and chariots ranked in loose array ; 
So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth 
Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. 
Before their eyes in sudden view appear 890 

The secrets of the hoary Deep, a dark 
Illimitable ocean, without bound. 

Without dimension ; where length, breadth, and highth, 
And time, and place, are lost ; where eldest Night 
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 
Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise 
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. 
Eor Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce, 
Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 
Their embryon atoms ; they around the flag 900 

Of each his faction, in their several clans, 



Booh 11. 81 

Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow, 

Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands 

Of Barca or Gyrene's torrid soil. 

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 

Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, 

He rules a moment ; Chaos umpire sits. 

And by decision more embroils the fray 

By which he reigns ; next him, high arbiter, 

Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss, 910 

The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave. 

Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, 

But all these in their pregnant causes mixed 

Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight. 

Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain 

His dark materials to create more worlds — 

Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend 

Stood on the brink of Hell and looked awhile. 

Pondering his voyage ; for no narrow frith 

He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed 920 

With noises loud and ruinous (to compare 

G-reat things with small) than when Bellona storms 

With all her battering engines, bent to rase 

Some capital city ; or less than if this frame 

Of Heaven were falling, and these elements 

In mutiny had from her axle torn 

The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans 

He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke 

Uplifted spurns the ground; thence many a league, 

As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides 930 

Audacious ; but, that seat soon failing, meets 

A vast vacuity : all unawares. 

Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb-down he drops 

Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour 

Down had been falling, had not by ill chance 

The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 



82 Paradise Lost. 

Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him 

As many miles aloft : that fury stayed — 

Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, 

Nor good dry land — nigh foundered, on he fares, 940 

Treading the crude consistence, half on foot. 

Half flying ; behoves him now both oar and sail. 

As when a gryphon through the wilderness 

With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale. 

Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth 

Had from his wakeful custody purloined 

The guarded gold : so eagerly the Fiend 

O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare. 

With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 950 

At length a universal hubbub wild 

Of stunning sounds and voices all confused, 

Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear 

With loudest vehemence. Thither he plies 

Undaunted, to meet there whatever Power 

Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss 

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask 

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies 

Bordering on light ; when straight behold the throne 

Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 960 

Wide on the wasteful Deep ! With him enthroned 

Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things. 

The consort of his reign ; and by them stood 

Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 

Of Demogorgon ; Rumor next and Chance, 

And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled. 

And Discord with a thousand various mouths. 

To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus : — 'Ye Powers 
And Spirits of this nethermost Abyss, 

Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy, 970 

With purpose to explore or to disturb 



Book IL 83 

The secrets of your realm ; but, by constraint 

Wandering this darksome desert, as my way 

Lies through your spacious empire up to light, 

Alone and without guide, half lost, I seek 

What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds 

Confine with Heaven ; or if some other place, 

From your dominion won, the Ethereal King 

Possesses lately, thither to arrive 

I travel this profound. Direct my course : 980 

Directed, no mean recompense it brings 

To your behoof, if I that region lost. 

All usurpation thence expelled, reduce 

To her original darkness and your sway 

(Which is my present journey), and once more 

Erect the standard there of ancient Night. 

Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge ! ' 

Thus Satan ; and him thus the Anarch old, 
With faltering speech and visage incomposed. 
Answered : — 'I know thee, stranger, who thou art : 990 

That mighty leading Angel, who of late 
Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown. 
I saw and heard ; for such a numerous host 
Fled not in silence through the frighted deep, 
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, 
Confusion worse confounded ; and Heaven-gates 
Poured out by millions her victorious bands, 
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here 
Keep residence ; if all I can will serve 

That little which is left so to defend, 1000 

Encroached on still through our intestine broils 
Weakening the sceptre of old Night : first Hell, 
Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath ; 
Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world 
Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain 
To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell. 



84 Paradise Lost. 

If that way be your walk, you have not far ; 
So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed ! 
Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain.' 

He ceased ; and Satan stayed not to reply, lOio 

But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, 
With fresh alacrity and force rene\v^ed 
Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, 
Into the wild expanse, and through the shock 
Of fighting elements, on all sides round 
Environed, wins his way ; harder beset 
And more endangered, than when Argo passed 
Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks ; 
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned 
Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steered : 1020 

So he with difficulty and labor hard 
Moved on : with difficulty and labor he ; 
But, he once passed, soon after, when Man fell, 
Strange alteration ! Sin and Death amain. 
Following his track (such was the will of Heaven) 
Paved after him a broad and beaten way 
Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling gulf 
Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length, 
From Hell continued, reaching the utmost orb 
Of this frail World ; by which the Spirits perverse 1030 

With easy intercourse pass to and fro 
To tempt or punish mortals, except whom 
God and good Angels guard by special grace. 

But now at last the sacred influence 
Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven 
Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night 
A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins 
Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire, 
As from her outmost works, a broken foe, 
With tumult less and with less hostile din ; 1040 

That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, 



Book 11. 85 

Wafts on tlie calmer wave by dubious light, 

And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds 

Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn ; 

Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, 

Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold 

Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide 

In circuit, undetermined square or round. 

With opal towers, and battlements adorned 

Of living sapphire, once his native seat ; 1050 

And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain, 

This pendent World, in bigness as a star 

Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. 

Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge. 

Accurst, and in a cursed hour, he hies. 



CONCLUSION. 



The first two books constitute an interlude, or perhaps 
rather a link, between the two tragic motives of the poem : 
the fall of Satan, and the fall of Adam. Interest is to be 
sustained in the preceding action upon the vast stage of in- 
finity by the very act of advance towards that limited field 
of Adam's struggle. The greater portion of the opening 
books is devoted to the delineation of the character of 
Satan and of his principal associates ; it is only toward the 
close of the second book that, in the departure of Satan 
from Pandemonium, the former action is resumed and the 
latter assumed. Henceforth the arena of action is to be 
steadily narrowed, to the stellar universe, to the earth, to 
the country of Eden, and finally to that fateful garden in 
which human and heavenly and infernal powers are to meet 
and make their first sad adjustment. 

Now had the Almighty Father from above, 
From the pm-e Empyrean where he sits 
High throned above all highth, bent down his eye, 
His own works and their works at once to view : 
Above him all the Sanctities of Heaven 
Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received 
Beatitude past utterance ; on his right 
The radiant image of his glory sat, 
His only Son. On Earth he first beheld 
Our two first parents, yet the only two 
Of mankind, in the happy garden placed, 
87 



88 Paradise Lost. 

Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, 

Uninterrupted joy, unrivalled love, 

In blissful solitude. He then surveyed 

Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there 

Coasting the wall of Heaven on this side Night, 

In the dun air sublime, and ready now 

To stoop with vv^earied wings and willing feet 

On the bare outside of this World, that seemed 

Firm land embosomed, without firmament. 

Uncertain which, in ocean or in air. 

(III. 56-76.) 

In point of space, tbe action is to be gradually contracted ; 
but presently we are given a further vista of its scope in 
point of time. The Father, communing with the Son, 

foretells the success of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his 
own justice and wisdom from all imputation, having created Man 
free and able enough to have withstood his tempter ; yet declares 
his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own 
malice, as did Satan, but by him seduced. The Son of God ren- 
ders praises to his Father for the manifestation of his gracious 
purpose towards Man ; but God again declares that grace cannot 
be extended towards Man without the satisfaction of divine jus- 
tice ; Man hath offended the Majesty of God by aspiring to God- 
head, and, therefore, with all his progeny, devoted to death, must 
die, unless some one can be found sufficient to answer for his 
offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely 
offers himself a ransom for Man ; the Father accepts him, ordains 
his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in 
Heaven and Earth ; commands all the Angels to adore him ; they 
obey, and hymning to their harps in full choir, celebrate the 
Father and the Son. 

(Argument, Bk. III.) 

Thus they in Heaven, above the Starry Sphere, 
Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent. 
Meanwhile upon the firm opacous globe 
Of this round World, whose first convex divides 



Conclusion. 89 

The luminous inferior orbs, enclosed 

From Chaos and the inroad of Darkness old, 

Satan alighted walks. A globe far off 

It seemed, now seems a boundless continent. 

Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night 

Starless exposed, and ever-threatening storms 

Of Chaos blustering round, inclement sky. 

Save on that side which from the wall of Heaven, 

Though distant far, some small reflection gains 

Of glimmering air less vexed with tempest loud : 

Here walked the Fiend at large in spacious field. 

As when a vulture on Imaus bred. 

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds. 

Dislodging from a region scarce of prey, 

To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids 

On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs 

Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams ; 

But in his way lights on the barren plains 

Of Sericana, where Chineses drive 

With sails and wind their cany wagons light : 

So on this windy sea of land, the Fiend 

Walked up and down alone, bent on his prey : 

Alone ; for other creature in this place, 

Living or lifeless, to be found was none. 

(III. 416-443.) 

Passing over this vast unpeopled tract, Satan's eye is 
at last caught by a distant gleam, which, upon nearer 
approach, he perceives to be the shining gate of Heaven, 
down from which extends a passage to an opening in the 
shell of the stellar World, or universe, and farther, to earth 
itself. 

Satan from hence, now on the lower stair 
That scaled by steps of gold to Heaven gate, 
Looks down with wonder at the sudden view 
Of all this World at once. As when a scout 
Through dark and desert ways with peril gone 
All night, at last by break of cheerful dawn 



90 Paradise Lost. 

Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill, 

Which to his eye discovers unaware 

The goodly prospect of some foreign land 

First seen, or some renowned metropolis 

With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned. 

Which now the rising Sim gilds with his beams : 

Such wonder seized, though after Heaven seen. 

The Spirit malign, but much more envy seized. 

At sight of all this World beheld so fair. 

Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood 

So high above the circling canopy 

Of Night's extended shade) from eastern point 

Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears 

Andromeda far off Atlantic seas 

Beyond the horizon ; then from pole to pole 

He views in breadth, and without longer pause 

Down right into the World's first region throws 

His flight precipitant, and winds with ease 

Through the pure marble air his oblique way 

Amongst innumerable stars, that shone 

Stars distant, but nigh-hand seemed other worlds ; 

Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles. 

Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old. 

Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales, 

Thrice happy isles ! But who dwelt happy there 

He stayed not to inquire : above them all 

The golden Sun, in splendor likest Heaven, 

Allured his eye : thither his course he bends 

Through the calm firmament (but up or down, 

By centre, or eccentric, hard to tell. 

Or longitude) where the great luminary 

Aloof the vulgar constellations thick. 

That from his lordly eye keep distance due, 

Dispenses light from far. 

(III. 540-579.) 

Here Satan alights, and, scanning the clear landscape, in 
which is no shadow, he presently descries another being, 
whom he recognizes as one of the sons of God. 



Conclusion. 91 

His back was turned, but not his brightness hid : 

Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar 

Circled his head, nor less his locks behind 

Illustrious on his shoulders fledge with wings 

Lay waving round. On some great charge employed 

He seemed, or fixed in cogitation deep. 

Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope 

To find who might direct his wandering flight 

To Paradise, the happy seat of Man, 

His journey's end, and our beginning woe. 

But first he casts to change his proper shape, 

Which else might work him danger or delay : 

And now a stripling Cherub he appears. 

Not of the prime, yet such as in his face 

Youth smiled celestial, and to every limb 

Suitable grace diffused, so well he feigned : 

Under a coronet his flowing hair 

In curls on either cheek played; wings he wore 

Of many a colored plume, sprinkled with gold ; 

His habit fit for speed succinct, and held 

Before his decent steps a silver wand. 

He drew not nigh unheard : the Angel bright, 

Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turned. 

Admonished by his ear, and straight was known 

The Archangel Uriel, one of the seven 

Who in God's presence, nearest to his throne, 

Stand ready at command. ^m 624-650.) 

Safe in his disguise, Satan boldly accosts his former foe, 
asserts that lie has wandered from Heaven in the hope of 
beholding the wonderful new creature of the divine power ; 
and asks Uriel to direct him to the home of Man. Uriel 
praises the supposed angel for his zeal, and pictures to him 
the grandeur of God's might, and its evidencing in the act 
of creation just accomplished, of which he has been eye-wit- 
ness : 

' I saw when at his word the formless mass. 
This World's material mould, came to a heap : 



92 Paradise Lost. 

Confusion heard his voice, and wild Uproar 
Stood ruled, stood vast Infinitude confined ; 
Till, at his second bidding. Darkness fled. 
Light shone, and Order from Disorder sprung : 
Swift to their several quarters hasted then 
The cumbrous elements, Earth, Flood, Air, Fire ; 
And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven 
Flew upward, spirited with various forms, 
That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars 
Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move : 
Each had his place appointed, each his course; 
The rest in circuit walls this Universe. 
Look downward on that globe, whose hither side 
With light from hence, though but reflected, shines ; 
That place is Earth, the seat of Man ; that light 
His day, which else, as the other hemisphere, 
Night would invade ; but there the neighboring moon 
(So call that opposite fair star) her aid 
Timely interposes, and her monthly round 
Still ending, still renewing, through mid-heaven, 
With borrowed light her countenance triform 
Hence fills and empties to enlighten the Earth, 
And in her pale dominion checks the night. 
That spot to which I point is Paradise, 
Adam's abode, those lofty shades his bower. 
Thy way thou canst not miss, me mine requires.' 
Thus said, he turned ; and Satan bowing low, 
As to superior Spirits is wont in Heaven, 
Where honor due and reverence none neglects, 
Took leave, and toward the coast of earth beneath, 
Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success, 
Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel, 
Nor stayed, till on Niphates' top he lights. 

(III. 708-742.) 

Success is now at hand ; Satan already feels that the prey 
is at his mercy. But he has one or two battles yet to fight 
with his better nature, before the not ignoble pride Avhich 



Conclusion. 93 

inspires his thirst for vengeance becomes degraded into 
mere malice and foul, because consciously nourished, hatred 
of everything good and pure and true. He approaches 
earth and Eden and the pair who are to suffer through him, 
with confidence : 

Yet not rejoicing in his speed, though bold 

Far off, and fearless ; nor with cause to boast 

Begins his dire attempt ; which nigh the birth 

Now rolling, boils in his tumultuous breast, 

And like a devilish engine back recoils 

Upon himself : horror and doubt distract 

His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir 

The Hell within him ; for within him Hell 

He brings, and round about him ; nor from Hell 

One step no more than from himself can fly 

By change of place : now Conscience wakes Despair 

That slumbered ; wakes the bitter memory 

Of what he was, what is, and what must be 

Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue. 

Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view 

Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad ; 

Sometimes towards Heaven and the full-blazing Sun, 

Which now sat high in his meridian tower : 

Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began : — 

<0 thou that, with surpassing glory crowned, 
Look'st from thy sole dominion like the god 
Of this new World — at whose sight all the stars 
Hide their diminished heads — to thee I call. 
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name, 

Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams. 
That bring to my remembrance from what state 

1 fell, how glorious once above thy sphere ; 
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down. 
Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King : 
Ah wherefore? He deserved no such return 

From me, whom he created what I w^as 
In that bright eminence, and with his good 



94 Paradise Lost. 

Upbraided none ; nor was his service hard. 

What could be less than to afford him praise, 

The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks. 

How due ! Yet all his good proved ill in me, 

And wrought but malice ; lifted up so high, 

I sdained subjection, and thought one step higher 

Would set me highest, and in a moment quit 

The debt immense of endless gratitude. 

So burdensome still paying, still to owe. 

Forgetful what from Him I still received. 

And understood not that a grateful mind 

By owing owes not, but still pays, at once 

Indebted and discharged: what burden then? 

O had his powerful destiny ordained 

Me some inferior Angel, I had stood 

Then happy ; no unbounded hope had raised 

Ambition. Yet, why not ? Some other Power, 

As great might have aspired, and me, though mean. 

Drawn to his part ; but other Powers as great 

Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within 

Or from without, to all temptations armed. 

Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand? 

Thou hadst. Whom hast thou then or what to accuse, 

But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all ? 

Be then his love accursed, since, love or hate. 

To me alike it deals eternal woe. 

Nay, cursed be thou; since against his thy will 

Chose freely what it now so justly rues. 

Me miserable ! which way shall I fly 

Infinite wrath, and infinite despair ? 

Which way I fly is Hell ; myself am Hell ; 

And in the lowest deep a lower deep 

Still threatening to devour me opens wide. 

To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven. 

O then at last relent ! Is there no place 

Left for repentance, none for pardon left ? 

None left but by submission ; and that word 

Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame 

Among the Spirits beneath, whom I seduced 



Conclusion. 95 

Witli other promises and otlier vaunts 

Than to submit, boasting I coukl subdue 

Tlie Omnipotent. Ay me, they little know 

How dearly I abide that boast so vain, 

Under what torments inwardly I groan. 

While they adore me on the throne of Hell, 

With diadem and sceptre high advanced, 

The lower still I fall, only supreme 

In misery : such joy ambition finds ! 

But say I could repent, and could obtain, 

By act of grace, my former state ; how soon 

Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay 

What feigned submission swore ! Ease would recant 

Vows made in pain, as violent and void 

(For never can true reconcilement grow 

Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep) ; 

Which would but lead me to a worse relapse 

And heavier fall : so should I purchase dear 

Short intermission, bought with double smart. 

This knows my Punisher ; therefore as far 

From granting he, as I from begging, peace. 

All hope excluded thus, behold, instead 

Of us, outcast, exiled, his new delight. 

Mankind, created, and for him this World ! 

So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, 

Farewell remorse ! All good to me is lost ; 

Evil, be thou my good : by thee, at least 

Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold, 

By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign; 

As Man erelong, and this new World, shall know.' 

Thus while he spake, each passion dimmed his face ; 
Thrice changed with pale, ire, envy, and despair ; 
Which marred his borrowed visage, and betrayed 
Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld. 
For heavenly minds from such distempers foul 
Are ever clear. Whereof he soon aware. 
Each perturbation smoothed with outward calm, 
Artificer of fraud ; and was the first 
That practised falsehood under saintly show, 



96 Paradise Lost. 

Deep malice to conceal, couched with revenge : 
Yet not enough had practised to deceive 
Uriel once vv^arned ; whose eye pursued him down 
The way he went, and on the Assyrian mount 
Saw him disfigured more than could befall " 
Spirit of happy sort; his gestures fierce 
He marked and mad demeanor, then alone, 
As he supposed, all unobserved, unseen. 

So on he fares, and to the border comes 
Of Eden, where delicious Paradise, 
Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green. 
As with a rural mound, the champain head 
Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides 
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, 
Access denied ; and overhead up grew 
Insuperable highth of loftiest shade. 
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm ; 
A sylvan scene ; and as the ranks ascend, 
Shade above shade, a woody theatre 
Of stateliest view. 

(IV. 16-142.) 

Satan approaches, and, disdaining to seek an entrance by 
the gate, bounds over the verdurous wall, and flies at once 
to the most elevated place in the garden, the topmost branch 
of the Tree of Life. 

Beneath him, with new wonder, now he views 

To all delight of human sense exposed 

In narrow room Nature's whole wealth ; yea, more, 

A Heaven on Earth : for blissful Paradise 

Of God the garden was, by him in the east 

Of Eden planted ; Eden stretched her line 

From Auran eastward to the royal towers 

Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings, 

Or where the sons of Eden long before 

Dwelt in Telassar. In this pleasant soil 

His far more pleasant garden God ordained ; 



Conclusion. 97 

Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow 

All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste ; 

And all amid them stood the Tree of Life, 

High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit 

Of vegetable gold ; and next to life, 

Our death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by — 

Knowledge of good, bought dear by knowing ill. 

(IV. 205-222.) 

Nearer at hand are brooks, which, 

Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold. 
With mazy error under pendent shades 
Ran nectar, visiting each plant. 

But none of these scenes of beauty move Satan to 
pleasure : 

The Fiend 
Saw undelighted all delight, all kind 
Of living creatures, new to sight and strange. 
Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall. 
Godlike erect, with native honor clad 
In naked majesty seemed lords of all, 
And worthy seemed ; for in their looks divine 
The image of their glorious Maker shone. 
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure 
(Severe, but in true filial freedom placed). 
Whence true authority in men : though botli 
Not equal, as their sex not equal seemed : 
For contemplation he and valor formed ; 
For softness she, and sweet attractive grace ; 
He for God only, she for God in him. 
His fair large front and eye sublime declared 
Absolute rule ; and hyacinthine locks 
Round from his parted forelock manly hung 
Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad : 
She, as a veil down to the slender waist, 
Her unadorned golden tresses wore 
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved, 

H 



98 Paradise Lost. 

As the vine curls her tendrils ; which implied 
Subjection, but required with gentle sway, 
And by her yielded, by him best received 
Yielded, with coy submission, modest pride, 
And sweet, reluctant, amorous delay. 



(IV. 285-311.) 



At sigbt of the pair Satan once more experiences a mo- 
mentary revulsion from his purpose, but with no real hesi- 
tation as to his course ; and an easy bit of sophistry very 
quickly restores him to himself. He is not their foe, after 
all, he says, apostrophizing them : 

' League with you I seek, 
And mutual amity so strait, so close. 
That I with you must dwell, or you with me. 
Henceforth. My dwelling haply may not please. 
Like this fair Paradise, your sense ; yet such 
Accept your Maker's work ; he gave it me, 
Which I as freely give : Hell shall unfold, 
To entertain you two, her widest gates. 
And send forth all her kings ; there will be room, 
Not like these narrow limits, to receive 
Your numerous offspring ; if no better place, 
Thank him who puts me, loath, to this revenge 
On you who wrong me not, for him who wronged. 
And should I at your harmless innocence 
Melt, as I do, yet public reason just — 
Honor and empire with revenge enlarged 
By conquering this new World — compels me now 
To do what else, though damned, I should abhor.' 

So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, 
The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds. 

(IV. 375-394.) 

In the meantime Uriel reports to his superior, Gabriel, the 
circumstance of the meeting with the stranger, his departure 
toward earth, and his suspicious behavior upon the moun- 



Conclusion. 99 

tain-top. Gabriel commends Uriel for liis vigilance, and 
agrees with him that measures must be taken to discover 
and oust the stranger, if he should prove, as they suspect, to 
be one of the fallen spirits. 

Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray 
Had in her sober livery all things clad ; 
Silence accompanied : for beast and bird, 
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, 
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale : 
She all night long her amorous descant sung : 
Silence was pleased. Now glowed the firmament 
With living sapphires : Hesperus, that led 
The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon. 
Rising in clouded majesty, at length 
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light. 
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw. 

(IV. 598-609.) 

G-abriel, to whom has been given main charge of guarding 
the new creation, and especially Adam and Eve, sends out 
certain of his subordinates to search in the garden for the 
suspected stranger. They find Satan squatting in the form 
of a toad at the ear of the sleeping Eve. Surprised, and for 
the moment overawed by the splendor and God-given author- 
ity of the Angels, he suffers himself to be led before Gabriel : 

To whom with stern regard thus Gabriel spake : 
' Why hast thou, Satan, broke the bounds prescribed 
To thy transgressions, and disturbed the charge 
Of others, who approve not to transgress 
By thy example, but have power and right 
To question thy bold entrance on this place ; 
Employed it seems to violate sleep, and those 
Whose dwelling God hath planted here in bliss?' 

To whom thus Satan with contemptuous brow: — 
* Gabriel, thou hadst in Heaven the esteem of wise. 
And such I held thee ; but this question asked 



100 Paradise Lost. 

Puts me in doubt. Lives there who loves his pain ? 

Who would not, finding way, break loose from Hell, 

Though thither doomed? Thou would'st thyself, no doubt, 

And boldly venture to whatever place 

Farthest from pain, where thou might'st hope to change 

Torment with ease, and soonest recompense 

Dole with delight, which in this place I sought ; 

To thee no reason, who knowest only good. 

But evil hast not tried. And wilt object 

His will who bound us? Let him surer bar 

His iron gates, if he intends our stay 

In that dark durance : thus much what was asked. 

The rest is true ; they found me where they say ; 

But that implies not violence or harm.' 

Thus he in scorn. The warlike Angel, moved. 
Disdainfully, half smiling, thus replied : — 
' O loss of one in Heaven to judge of wise, 
Since Satan fell, whom folly overthrew. 
And now returns him from his prison scaped. 
Gravely in doubt whether to hold them wise 
Or not, who ask what boldness brought him hither, 
Unlicensed from his bounds in Hell prescribed! 
So wise he judges it to fly from pain. 
However, and to scape his punishment. 
So judge thou still, presumptuous, till the wrath, 
Which thou incurrest by flying, meet thy flight 
Sevenfold, and scourge that wisdom back to Hell 
Which taught thee yet no better, that no pain 
Can equal anger infinite provoked. 
But wherefore thou alone ? Wherefore with thee 
Came not all Hell broke loose ? Is pain to them 
Less pain, less to be fled? or thou than they 
Less hardy to endure? Courageous Chief, 
The first in flight from pain, hadst thou alleged 
To thy deserted host this cause of flight. 
Thou surely hadst not come sole fugitive.' 

To which the Fiend thus answered, frowning stern: — 
* Not that I less endure, or shrink from pain. 
Insulting Angel : well thou knowest I stood 



Conclusion. 101 

Thy fiercest, when in battle to thy aid 

The blasting volleyed thnnder made all speed, 

And seconded thy else not dreaded spear. 

But still thy words at random, as before, 

Argue thy inexperience what behoves 

From hard essays and ill successes past, 

A faithful leader — not to hazard all 

Through ways of danger by himself untried : 

I therefore, I alone, first undertook 

To wing the desolate Abyss, and spy 

This new-created World, whereof in Hell 

Fame is not silent, here in hope to find 

Better abode, and my afflicted Powers 

To settle here on earth, or in mid-air; 

Though for possession put to try once more 

What thou and thy gay legions dare against ; 

Whose easier business were to serve their Lord 

High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his throne. 

And practised distances to cringe, not fight.' 

To whom the warrior Angel soon replied : — 
' To say and straight unsay, pretending first 
Wise to fly pain, professing next the spy, 
Argues no leader, but a liar traced, 
Satan; and couldst thou "faithful" add? O name, 
O sacred name of faithfulness profaned ! 
Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew? 
Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head ! 
Was this your discipline and faith engaged, 
Your military obedience, to dissolve 
Allegiance to the acknowledged Power Supreme ? 
And thou, sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem 
Patron of liberty, who more than thou 
Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored 
Heaven's awful Monarch ? wherefore but in hope 
To dispossess him, and thyself to reign? 
But mark what I areed thee now : Avaunt! 
Fly thither whence thou fledd'st : if from this hour 
Within these hallowed limits thou appear. 
Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained, 



102 Paradise Lost. 

And seal thee so as henceforth not to scorn 
The facile gates of Hell too slightly barred.' 

So threatened he ; but Satan to no threats 
Gave heed, but, waxing more in rage, replied : — 

' Then when I am thy captive, talk of chains, 
Proud limitary Cherub ; but ere then 
Far heavier load thyself expect to feel 
From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's King 
Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers. 
Used to the yoke, draw'st his triumphant wheels 
In progress through the road of Heaven star-paved.' 

While thus he spake, the angelic squadron bright 
Turned fiery red, sharpening in mooned horns 
Their phalanx, and began to hem him round 
With ported spears, as thick as when a field 
Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends 
Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind 
Sways them; the careful ploughman doubting stands, 
Lest on the threshing-floor his hopeful sheaves 
Prove chaff. On the other side Satan, alarmed, 
Collecting all his might, dilated stood. 
Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremoved : 
His stature reached the sky, and on his crest 
Sat Horror plumed ; nor wanted in his grasp 
What seemed both spear and shield. Now dreadful deeds 
Might have ensued ; nor only Paradise 
Li this commotion, but the starry cope 
Of Heaven perhaps, or all the elements 
At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn 
With violence of this conflict, had not soon 
The Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray. 
Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales, yet seen 
Betwixt Astraea and the Scorpion sign. 
Wherein all things created first he weighed, 
The pendulous round earth with balanced air 
In counterpoise ; now ponders all events, 
Battles, and realms : in these he put two weights. 
The sequel each of parting and of fight ; 
The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam; 



Conclusion. 103 

Which Gabriel spying, thus bespake the Fiend : — 

'Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'st mine; 
Neither our own, but given. What folly then 
To boast what arms can do ? since thine no more 
Than Heaven permits, nor mine, though doubled now 
To trample thee as mire : for proof, look up, 
And read thy lot in yon celestial sign, 

Where thou art weighed, and shown how light, how weak, 
If thou resist.' The Fiend looked up, and knew 
His mounted scale aloft : nor more ; but fled 
Murmuring ; and with him fled the shades of night. 

(IV. 87G-1015.) 

With the morning Eve wakes to tell Adam of a strange 
dream, in which she has been led to the Tree of Knowledge, 
and there persuaded by a heavenly visitant (as she sup- 
poses), to taste its forbidden fruit. Adam comforts and 
reassures her, and, lifting a hymn of praise, they go about 
their daily tasks. That there may be no doubt that man 
is responsible for his fall, God sends the archangel Raphael 
to warn them explicitly against the wiles of Satan. The 
Seraph is welcomed by Adam and Eve with wonder and 
delight; delivers his warning; and, in reply to their ques- 
tions, rehearses the story of the great strife in Heaven, the 
defeat and expulsion of the rebel Angels, Satan's persistence 
in his crime against God, and his consequent enmity to 
man. 

In the meantime, Satan, cast out of Eden, wanders rest- 
lessly about, compassing the globe ; and at length re-enters 
the garden, in the form of a mist. Casting about for a new 
disguise fit for the pursuance of his designs against human- 
ity, he has determined to enter into the form of the serpent ; 
not without qualms of shame and desperation : — 

* O foul descent ! that I, who erst contended 
With Gods to sit the highest, am now constrained 
Into a beast, and, mixed wilh bestial slime, 



104 Paradise Lost. 

This essence to incarnate and imbrute, 

That to the highth of deity aspired ! 

But what will not ambition and revenge 

Descend to? Who aspires, must down as low 

As high he soared, obnoxious first or last 

To basest things. Revenge, at first though sweet. 

Bitter erelong back on itself recoils. 

Let it : I reck not, so it light well aimed, 

Since higher I fall short, on him who next 

Provokes my envy, this new favorite 

Of Heaven, this man of clay, son of despite. 

Whom us the more to spite his Maker raised 

From dust. Spite then with spite is best repaid.' 

So saying, through each thicket dank or dry. 
Like a black mist low creeping, he held on 
His midnight search, where soonest he might find 
The serpent : him fast sleeping soon he found, 
Li labyrinth of many a round self-rolled. 
His head the midst, well stored with subtle wiles 
Nor yet in horrid shade or dismal den, 
Nor nocent yet, but on the grassy herb 
t'earless, unfeared, he slept. In at his mouth 
The devil entered; and his brutal sense, 
In heart or head, possessing, soon inspired 
With act intelligential ; but his sleep 
Disturbed not, waiting close the approach of morn. 

(IX. 163-191.) 

Dawn comes, and Adam and Eve once more give praise to 
the Creator, and take up the simple round of their daily 
life. Eve suggests that their duties make it advisable for 
them to work separately. Adam holds that they are safer 
together, and reminds her of the warning to strict vigilance 
which the Seraph has but now given them. Eve, piqued 
that she should be considered lacking in strength to with- 
stand temptation, urges more warmly her preference; and 
Adam after some debate, and a vain effort to dissuade her, 
suffers her to leave him. 



Conclusion. ^ 105 

Her long with ardent look his eye pursued, 

Delighted; but desiring more her stay. 

Oft he to her his charge of quick return 

Repeated; she to him as oft engaged 

To be returned by noon amid the bower, 

And all things in best order to invite 

Noontide repast, or afternoon's repose. 

O much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve, 

Of thy presumed return ! event perverse ! 

Thou never from that hour in Paradise 

Found'st either sweet repast or sound repose ! 

Such ambush hid among sweet flowers and shades 

Waited with hellish rancor imminent 

To intercept thy way, or send thee back 

Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss. 

For now, and since first break of dawn, the Fiend, 

Mere serpent in appearance, forth was come. 

And on his quest, where likeliest he might find 

The only two of mankind, but in them 

The whole included race ; his purposed prey. 

In bower and field he sought, where any tuft 

Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay, 

Their tendance or plantation for delight : 

By fountain, or by shady rivulet 

He sought them both ; but wished his hap might find 

Eve separate ; he wished, but not with hope 

Of what so seldom chanced, when to his wish. 

Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies. 

Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood, 

Plalf spied, so thick the roses blushing round 

About her glowed, oft stooping to support 

Each flower of slender stalk, whose head, though gay 

Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold, 

Hung drooping unsustained : them she upstays 

Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while 

Herself, though fairest unsupported flower. 

From her best prop so far, and storm so nigli. 

Nearer he drew ; and many a walk traversed 

Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm, 



106 Paradise Lost. 

Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen 

Among thick-woven arborets and flowers 

Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve : 

Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned 

Or of revived Adonis, or renowned 

Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son. 

Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king 

Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse. 

Much he the place admired, the person more, 

As one who, long in populous city pent, 

Where houses thick, and sewers, annoy the air. 

Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to breathe 

Among the pleasant villages and farms 

Adjoined, from each thing met conceives delight — 

The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine. 

Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound — 

If chance with nymph-like step fair virgin pass, 

AVhat pleasing seemed, for her now pleases more, 

She most, and in her look sums all delight ; 

Such pleasure took the serpent to behold 

This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve, 

Thus early, thus alone. Her heavenly form, 

Angelic, but more soft and feminine. 

Her graceful innocence, her every air 

Of gesture or least action, overawed 

His malice, and with rapine sweet bereaved 

His fierceness of the fierce intent it brought. 

That space the Evil One abstracted stood 

From his own evil, and for the time remained 

Stupidly good ; of enmity disarmed. 

Of guile, of hate, of envy, of revenge. 

But the hot Hell that always in him burns, 

Though in mid Heaven, soon ended his delight. 

And tortures him now more, the more he sees 

Of pleasure not for him ordained. Then soon 

Fierce hate he recollects, and all his thoughts 

Of mischief, gratulating, thus excites : — 

' Thoughts, whither have ye led me? With what sweet 

Compulsion thus transported to forget 



Conclusion. 107 

What hither brought usV hate, not love, nor hope 

Of Paradise for Hell, hope here to taste 

Of pleasure ; but all pleasure to destroy, 

Save w^hat is in destroying; other joy 

To me is lost. Then let me not let pass 

Occasion, which now smiles. Behold alone 

The woman, opportune to all attempts — 

Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh. 

Whose higher intellectual more I shun, 

Ai>d strength, of courage haughty, and of limb 

Heroic built, though of terrestrial mould ; 

Foe not informidable, exempt from wound — 

I not ; so much hath Hell debased, and pain 

Enfeebled me, to what 1 was in Heaven. 

She fair, divinely fair, fit love for Gods, 

Not terrible, though terror be in love 

And beauty, not approached by stronger hate, 

Hate stronger, under show of love well feigned ; 

The way which to her ruin now I tend.' 

So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed 
In serpent, inmate bad, and toward Eve 
Addressed his way, not with indented wave. 
Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear 
Circular base of rising folds, that towered 
Fold above fold a surging maze, his head 
Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes; 
With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect 
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass 
Floated redundant. Pleasing was his shape. 
And lovely : never since the serpent kind 
Lovelier : not those that in Illyria changed 
Hermione and Cadmus, or the God 
In Epidaurus ; nor to which transformed 
Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline was seen ; 
He with Olympias, this with her who bore 
Scipio the highth of Rome. With tract oblique 
At first, as one who sought access, but feared 
To interrupt, sidelong he works his way. 
As when a ship by skilful steersman wrought, 



108 Paradise Lost. 

Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind 
Veers oft, as oft so steers, and shifts her sail, 
So varied he, and of his tortuous train 
Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve, 
To lure her eye : she, busied, heard the sound 
Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as used 
To such disport before her through the field 
From every beast ; more duteous at her call 
Than at Circean call the herd disguised. 
He bolder now, uncalled, before her stood. 
But as in gaze admiring, oft he bowed 
His turret crest and sleek enamelled neck. 
Fawning, and licked the ground whereon she trod. 
His gentle dumb expression turned at length 
The eye of Eve to mark his play. 

(IX. 397-527.) 

Satan's object is now within reach. .Having gained the 
pleased attention of his victim, it is an easy task by adroit 
flattery first to lead her to the Tree of Knowledge, and then 
to overcome her scruples and bring her to taste the fatal 
fruit. Adam, for the moment horror-struck at Eve's deed, 
before long consents to share her guilt. 

Satan's end is gained; but it is a costly success. From 
the pure and lofty spirit, once among the greatest in Heaven, 
from the still noble rebel, sublimely erring through indomi- 
table pride and ambition, and still looking back with yearn- 
ing to his former happy estate, he has now come to be the 
mean trickster of Eden, contriving foully against the chil- 
dren of Earth. 

The rest of the story may be told in Milton's own prose 
(Arguments of Books X, XI, and XII) : — 

Man's transgression known, the guardian Angels forsake Para- 
dise, and return up to Heaven to approve their vigilance, and are 
approved; God declaring that the entrance of Satan could not be 
by them prevented. He sends his Son to judge the transgressors; 
who desc.ends, and gives sentence accordingly; then, in pity, clothes 



Conclusion. 109 

them both, and reascends. Sin and Death, sitting till then at the 
gates of Hell, by wondrous sympathy feeling the success of Satan 
in this new AVorld, and the sin by INI an there committed, resolve 
to sit no longer confined in Hell, but to follow Satan, their sire, up 
to the place of JSIan : to make the way easier from Hell to this 
world, to and fro, they pave a broad highway or bridge over Chaos, 
according to the track which Satan first made ; then, preparing for 
Earth, they meet him, proud of his success, returning to Hell: 
their mutual gratulation. Satan arrives at Pandemonium : in full 
assembly relates, with boasting, his success against Man; instead 
of applause, is entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, 
transformed, with himself also, suddenly into serpents, according 
to his doom given in Paradise; then, deluded with a show of the 
Forbidden Tree springing up before them, they, greedily reaching 
to take of the fruit, chew dust and bitter ashes. The proceedings 
of Sin and Death : God foretells the final victory of his Son over 
them, and the renewing of all things ; but, for the present, com- 
mands his Angels to make several alterations in the Heavens and 
Elements. Adam, more and more perceiving his fallen condition, 
heavily bewails, rejects the condolement of Eve ; she persists, and 
at length appeases him ; then, to evade the curse likely to fall on 
their offspring, proposes to Adam violent ways ; which he approves 
not, but, conceiving better hope, puts her in mind of the late prom- 
ise made them, that her Seed should be revenged on the serpent, 
and exhorts her, with him, to seek peace of the offended Deity by 
repentance and supplication. 

The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our first 
parents, now repenting, and intercedes for them ; God accepts 
them, but declares that they must no longer abide in Paradise; 
sends Michael with a band of Cherubim to dispossess them ; but 
first to reveal to Adam future things; Michael's coming down; 
Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs ; he discerns Michael's 
approach; goes out to meet him; the Angel denounces their de- 
parture ; Eve's lamentation ; Adam pleads, but submits ; the Angel 
leads him up to a high hill ; sets before him in vision what shall 
happen till the flood. 

The Angel Michael continues, from the flood, to relate what 
shall succeed ; then, in the mention of Abraham, comes by degrees 
to explain who that Seed of the Woman shall be, which was prom- 



110 Pm^adise Lost 

ised Adam and Eve in the fall ; his incarnation, death, resurrec- 
tion, and ascension ; the state of the Church till his second coming; 
Adam, greatly satisfied and comforted by these relations and prom- 
ises, descends the hill with Michael ; wakens Eve, who all this 
while had slept, but with gentle dreams composed to quietness of 
mind and submission ; Michael in either hand leads them out of 
Paradise : 

They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld 

Of Paradise (so late their happy seat) 

Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate 

With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms. 

Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon : 

The world was all before them where to choose 

Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. 

They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, 

Through Eden took their solitary way. 

(XII. 641-649.) 



NOTES. 



BOOK I. 

5. seat ; sedes, ' abode.' Cf . Virgil's ' sedes beatas ' {uEneid, VI. 
639). 

6. secret; sgcreiws, ' remote ' ; hence 'mysterious.' 

7. Of Oreb or of Sinai. The poet seems to be in doubt as to 
the name of the mountain whereon Moses communed with God. 
For the reason of his uncertainty see Exod. xix. 20 and Deut. iv. 
10. See if with the aid of a gazetteer you can determine which 
name is correct. 

10, 11. Sion and Siloa occur naturally to the poet as haunts of 
the Heavenly Muse (whom he elsewhere calls 'Urania'), just as 
the ' Aonian mount ' Helicon, with its stream Aganippe, was the 
traditional dwelling-place of the classic Muses. 

12. the oracle of God ; the great temple at Jerusalem, which 
was built on Mount Sion. 

16. rhyme. In making use of this spelling, Milton evidently 
draws a deliberate distinction between 'rime' (see The Verne, p. 27), 
the jingle of verse-endings, and 'rhyme,' a general term for verse 
as distinguished from prose. 

25. argument ; argumentum, ' subject.' 

26. assert; asserere, ' vindicate.' 

27-34. Milton's simplest motive in the poem is to inquire into 
the reasons for the existence of sin in a race of beings created by 
Almighty power. The inquiry begins with the ultimate result of 
Satan's revolt, and the answer contents itself at first with naming 
the immediate factor of that result — the Serpent. 

* I am sorry that Milton did not always keep separate the sublime 
Satan and " the infernal serpent," ' says Landor. Why is it not 
natural that the poet should connect his first mention of man's 

111 



112 Paradise Lost. 

enemy, with our simplest memory of the story in Genesis? It is 
the gradual degrading transformation of the 'sublime Satan' into 
the ' infernal Serpent ' which constitutes the absorbing theme of 
Milton's narrative. 

39. his peers ; the other archangels. 

40. trusted to have equalled ; long a common construction, 
even with the most careful writers, but now condemned by gram- 
marians. Does it not give a full flavor to Satan's confidence which 
would be lacking in the commoner con.struction ? 

45. ethereal sky; the Empyrean, filled with that mysterious 
substance * aether,' imagined by the Greek philosophers to be an 
element more closely allied with fire than with the air of our 
nearer heavens. Macmillan notes that '"empyreal substance" 
(I. 117) is exactly equivalent to "ethereal mould" (II. 139).' 

57. viritnessed ; ' bore witness to,' or ' beheld ' ? 

63. darkness visible. For a similar paradox, see II Penseroso, 
79, 80. 

68. urges; urgere, 'press hard upon.' 

72. utter; probably 'outer,' with reference to its distance from 
the throne of God. 

74. See Ini rod net ion, pp. 21, 22. 

79. Matt. xii. 24. 

83. thence called Satan. Satan in Hebrew means 'the ad- 
versary.' It should be noted, however, that the Hebrew concep- 
tion of Satan (as in the story of Job) was not of an adversary of 
God, but of one of his servants to whom is allotted the duty of 
testing and disciplining mankind. In Milton's conception, how- 
ever, Satan is a name of reproach, given to the great rebel after 
his expulsion from Heaven, when his former glorious name was 
' rased from the Books of Life.' 

107. study ; studium, ' longing.' 

114. empire ; impermm, ' power.' 

129. Seraphim. Milton uses the titles Seraph, Cherub, Prince, 
Power, etc., somewhat loosely, preferring, as Macaulay notes in his 
Essay on Milton, not to hedge in the imagination by a strictly spe- 
cific use of details. 

152. Deep ; Chaos. Gen. i. 2. Milton always calls the place by 
this name. 'Chaos' is the personal ruler of the Deep. See II. 
960, 961. 



Notes, Book I. 113 

156. Arch-Fiend. We have given the word 'fiend' a much less 
dignified meaning than it originally had. 

167. if I fail not ; nifallor, '• if I mistake not.' 

186. afflicted; (^/^/c^w6-, 'overthrown.' 

187. offend; o^e/K/ere, 'do violence to.' 

193-196. Is it an accident that there is a suggestion of the ser- 
pent in this first description of Satan ? 

198. Earth-born ; the Giants. The relative clause which fol- 
lows applies only to them. 

202. Created hugest, etc. Notice how plainly the unwieldy 
bulk of the monster is suggested by the lumbering movement of 
the verse. 

208. Invests ; ' clothes,' or ' beleaguers ' ? 

215. Heap on himself damnation. 'We miss one of the 
most important things about Paradise Lost, if we do not see that 
it has for a subject not only the Fall of Man, but the Fall of Satan, 
and not merely his first fall from Heaven, but his constant degra- 
dation lower and lower, until the absolute wreck of his physical 
beauty was a true index to the utter evil of his character ' (Hale). 

228-238. 'All this is too far detailed,' says Ruskin, 'and deals 
too much with externals ; we feel rather the form of the fire- 
waves than their fury, we walk upon them too securely, and the 
fuel, the sublimation, smoke, and singeing, seem to me images 
only of partial combustion ; they vary and extend the conception, 
but they lower the thermometer. Look back if you will, and add 
to the description the glimmering of the livid flames ; the sul- 
phurous hail and red lightning; yet all together, however they 
overwhelm us with horror, fail of making us thoroughly unen- 
durably hot.' The critic goes on to quote that passage from 
Dante {Purgatorio, xxvi. 4-8) in which the poet, standing between 
the western sun and the purgatorial fires, ' made, with his shadow, 
the flames look more white-hot.' ' That is a slight touch : he has not 
gone to iEtna nor Pelorus for fuel ; but we shall not soon recover 
from it. He has taken our breath away, and leaves us gasping. 
No smoke or cinders there. Pure, white, hurtling, formless flame ; 
very fire crystal ; we cannot make spires nor waves of it, nor 
divide it, nor walk on it : there is no question about singeing soles 
of feet. It is " lambent annihilation " ' {Modern Painters, Part 
in.). Consider in connection with this criticism Macaulay's com- 



114 Paradise Lost. 

parison : < The images which Dante emj)loys speak for themselves ; 
they stand simply for what they are. Those of Milton have a sig- 
nification which is often discernible only to the initiated. Their 
value depends less on what they distinctly represent than on what 
they remotely suggest' (Essay on Milton). 

254. its. Milton uses this word only three times, Shakespeare 
not more than twice as many. Look up its history. Would it 
not be preferable to ' his ' in 572 below ? 

266. astonished; a«om7i<5, • thunderstruck.' 

281. amazed; ' bewildered,' * like one in a maze.' 

282. pernicious; pej-niciosus, 'swiftly destructive.' 

288. Optic glass was a not uncommon name for the telescope 
in its early days. In the course of his Italian journey Milton had 
himself seen the Tuscan artist, Galileo. 

290. Valdarno; the valley of the Arno, within which lies 
Florence, the home of Galileo. 

294. ammiral. Milton is fond of using the Italian forms of 
certain words : e.g. ' ammiral ' (ammwaglio, a flag-ship) ; ' sovran ' 
(sovra7io); 'scape' (scappare). 

303. It is probable that the poet's description of Vallombrosa, 
a beautiful ' shady vale ' not far from Florence, is from memory. 

307. What is the meaning of chivalry in this passage? 

307-311. Exod. xiv. 

312. abject; aftjec^ws, 'hurled down.' 

315-330. Satan cleverly bestows upon his followers the lofty 
titles they have forfeited, hoping that the stirring sound may re- 
store to them something of their former confidence ; by the light 
irony of his opening questions he shows that he himself is una- 
bashed ; and by a prompt appeal to their soldierly instinct of obe- 
dience fairly lifts them out of themselves, or rather back to them- 
selves. The mechanical process of formation in military order 
is a great help to them in the recovery of their self-possession. 

335. nor did they not ; neque non. 

339-343. Exod. x. 

341. -warping. Does this word suggest the rate of speed, or the 
method of formation ? Is it possible to exhaust the suggestiveness 
of such a vivid touch by appeal to synonyms or definitions? 

348. Sultan; like 'Emperor' in 378 below, is used by Milton 
in a large rather that a specific sense. 



r 

Notes, Book I. 115 

351-355. What historic invasions are alluded to in this simile? 
The Rhine and the Danube, you must remember, formed the 
northern boundary of the Roman Empire. Milton has to draw 
his illustrations from subsequent human events, in order to make 
his far-off subject significant to human ears. 

364-375. Milton here merely appropriates to his use the com- 
mon belief of the Christian Fathers that the pagan deities were 
devils in disguise. 

372. religions; reUgiones, 'rites.' 

384. Their altars by his altar. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 4-7. 

388. "Within his sanctuary. 2 Kings xxi. 4, 5. 

392-396. For scriptural mention of sacrifices by the Israelites 
to Moloch, see Jer. vii. 31 ; Psalms, cvi. 36-38. 

396-399. 'The Ammonites were a people kindred to the Mo- 
abites, both tribes being children of Lot. They dwelt to the east 
of the land of Gilead : Rabba was in the southern part of their 
territory ; Argob, mentioned in 1 Kings iv. 13 as a part of 
Bashan, was farther north ; the Arnon rises in the mountains of 
Gilead, and flows into the Dead Sea. " Utmost " seems to mean 
near its source ' (Hale). 

402. against the temple of God. 1 Kings xi. 4-7. 

403-405. 'The southern part of the Mount of Olives is blasted 
with infamy, and called the " hill of scandal " (1. 416), the " offen- 
sive mountain" (1. 443), and in the Bible the "mount of corrup- 
tion" (2 Kings xxiii. 13), because it was disgraced by the shrines 
of false gods. For the same reason the beautiful valley of Hinnom, 
after it had been converted into a sacred grove for Moloch, became 
hateful to the Jews, who made it a receptacle for all the filth of 
the city. It then came to be known as Tophet (from Hebrew 
topJi, a drum), because drums were used at the sacrifice to Moloch 
to drown the children's cries (1. 394), or Gehenna. The word 
Gehenna is really derived from Hinnom, but obtained a bad 
meaning, when the valley was defiled, and became a type of hell ' 
(Macmillan). 

406. Chemos (or Chemos) was the national god of the Moab- 
ites, whose worship, like that of Moloch, was introduced among 
the Hebrews by Solomon. 

411. the Asphaltio pool; the Dead Sea, so called from the 
asphaltic or bituminous deposits which are found upon its shores. 



116 Paradise Lost. 

413. Israel in Sittim. Num. xxv. 

418. good Josiah. 2 Kings xxiii. 13, 14. 

446. Thammuz, the Greek Adonis, according to the fable, was 
killed on Lebanon by a wild boar, and ever after upon the anni- 
versary of his death the stream which flows from the mountain 
side, and which bore his name, was colored with his blood. 

452-457. Ezek. viii. 14. 

458-461. •when the captive ark, etc. 1 Sam. v. 4. In the 
succeeding lines the five principal cities of the Philistines are 
mentioned. 

471. A leper once he lost. 2 Kings ix. 17. 

472. Ahaz, etc. 2 Kings xvi. 10, 11. 

484. The calf in Oreb. Exod. xxxii. the rebel king, Jero- 
boam. 1 Kings xii. 26-29. 

490. Belial. The English translation of the Bible treats this 
word as a name ; it is properly a common noun, signifying ' base- 
ness.' The American revisers of the Old Testament recommend 
the substitution of ' base men ' for ' sons of Belial.' Mammon is 
also a common noun, signifying 'wealth.' 

495. Eli's sons." 1 Sam. ii. 12, 22. 

498. luxurious; luxuriosus, 'lewd.' 

498-502. In Milton's day and later there were in London certain 
well-known bands of roistering young bloods, who roamed the 
streets at night, committing all imaginable outrage upon trades- 
people and wayfarers. 

504. In Gibeah. Judges xix. 22-25. 

508. Javan's issue. ' Javan, son of Japhet ' (Gen. x. 2) stands 
for the Greek race ; the name being the same word as Ion (older 
form 'lawi/), whence lonians. So Milton in Sarnson Agonistes, 715, 
716, calls the Grecian islands 'isles of Javan ' (Verity). 

The names which follow are to be looked up in the classical 
reference books. 

543. reign ; regmmi, ' realm.' 

550. the Dorian mood ; grave, martial music, as distinguished 
from the lighter Lydian airs (see L' Allegro, 136). 

557. solemn touches. Compare Shakespeare's ' the touches of 
sweet harmony ' (Merchant of Venice, V. 1. 57). 

563. horrid; /ion7c?i<s, ' bristling.' 

573. since created man ; '• post liominem creatum* 



Notes, Book L 117 

575. that small infantry ; the Pygmies. 

577. Phlegra ; the Thraciaii plains upon whicli the wars between 
the giants and the gods were fought. 

580. Uther's son. The story of King Arthur had a strong 
fascination for Milton ; indeed, for years his choice of a subject 
for his great work seems to have hung undecided between the 
British Arthur and the World's Satan. 

583-587. ' Let us understand in the first place that although 
Milton, in all probability, used those eight names of places with a 
clear idea of what place was signified by, each one, we shall not 
get the whole good out of the passage when we know so much our- 
selves. Aspramont is six miles north of Mce, Montalban was 
a castle in Languedoc, and so on. Doubtless it is better, other 
things being equal, to know where these places were, but that 
knowledge alone does not give us much enjoyment. 

' There are, however, the literary allusions ; they add an interest. 
They certainly do add an interest when one has them at his fingers' 
ends as INIilton had. The half-legendary struggles between the 
Saracen knighthood and the Crusaders, the romantic adventures 
of the Paladins of Charlemagne, the final sacrifice of the Song of 
Roland, — these are all called up, vaguely but effectively, by those 
few lines. And when Aspramont reminds of the great Orlando, 
and Montalban is the castle of Rinaldo, the passage certainly has 
grown in meaning. Still, there is more yet to be said. Even the 
geographical and literary allusions do not make up the whole 
atmosphere of the lines. 

* There is little doubt that to Milton and to many of his readers 
the mere mention of strange, well-sounding names had a certain 
effect, wholly aside from the definite ideas brought to mind by 
them. They have generally a sonorous, magnificent sound, often 
from their very unf amiliarity, — a half-mysterious, romantic feel- 
ing. When they are geographical, the very fact that they are but 
half known gives a sort of exhilarating, wide-ranging sensation. 
Indeed, absolute exactness rather interferes with our enjoyment. 
It is better, just now, to think of Aspramont as a mediaeval castle 
somewhere in the sunny south of France near the exquisite blue 
of the Mediterranean than to conceive of it more exactly as six 
miles north of Nice. It is better that the name Trebisond should 
carry our thoughts out beyond the civilization of Europe, along 



118 Paradise Lost. 

the Black Sea, with ideas of Eastern magnificence, running astray 
to the rose-gardens of Persia, perhaps, or the southern spurs of the 
Caucasus' (Hale). 

588. observe ; observare, ' do homage to.' 

589-600. This is perhaps the most imposing description in 
Milton. 

597. disastrous. To grasp its significance in this passage, you 
will need to look up the primary meaning of the word. The same 
remark holds true of remorse and passion (605 below). 

618. all his peers. Speaking accurately, Satan had no peers in 
Hell ; he alone had been an Archangel in Heaven. The term is 
used loosely to include those great subordinates v.'ho have lately 
been named. 

636. different; ' different from yours,' 'peculiar,' hence 'selfish.' 

642. tempted our attempt. You will find Milton, in common 
with all other poets of his time, constantly playing upon words. 
Compare V. 583 : 

* The empyreal host 
Of Angels, by imperial summons called.' 

See also V. 869; IX. 1067; X. 588. 
646. close ; clausus, ' closed,' ' secret.' 

651. fame; fama, 'rumor.' 

652. Intended to create. 'The Universe had actually been 
created since Satan had been cast out of Heaven. The time now, 
it nmst be remembered, is eighteen days after the angels had been 
expelled from Heaven. See VI. 871 ; I. 50. The six days of crea- 
tion are said by Raphael, in Book VII., to have followed immedi- 
ately the expulsion of the rebels ' (Hale). 

670. Why should not the consultation to determine specific 
action take place now ? In what ways does the building of Pan- 
demonium serve Satan's ends ? 

671. the rest entire ; 07nne reliquum, ' all the rest.' 
686. impious ; impius, ' unfilial.' 

690. admire; admirari, ^ wonder.' 

711. Rose like an exhalation. Tennyson has made use of 
the same figure ( Tithoniis, 63) : 

' While Ilion like a mist rose into towers.' 



Notes, Book 11. 119 

718. Alcairo, Cairo. The first syllable is merely the article. 

740. Mulciber ; Vulcan, or, with the Greeks, Hephoestus. His 
fall is described in Homer {Iliad, I. 590-594). 

750. engines ; ingenia, ' devices.' 

756. Pandemonium ; TravhaijxovLov, ' the place of all the demons.' 

774. expatiate; ex_/j«rmW, ' range about.' confer, con/en-e, 'dis- 
cuss ' (trans.). 

781. the Indian mount ; the Himalayas. 

785. arbitress ; arbitra, * witness.' 

795. conclave ; conclave, ' a chamber.' 

797. frequent ; frequens, ' crowded.' 



BOOK II. 

2. Ormus ; now Hormuz, was a town upon a small island near 
the mouth of the Persian Gulf, once noted as a mart for the jewels 
of India. In 1653, a dozen years and more before the completion 
of Paradise Lost, the East India Company made its first settle- 
ments, and the wonders of India began to be known in England. 

4. Showers on her kings, etc. ' It was the Eastern ceremony, 
at the coronation of their kings, to powder them with gold-dust 
and seed-pearls ' ( Warburton). These royal honors Cleopatra prom- 
ises the messenger : 

' I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail 
Rich pearls upon thee.' {Antomj and Cleopatra, II. 5.) 

9. success. Evidently our modern use of the word would 
make nonsense here. Look up its original meaning, and note 
that in our two uses of the verb form we retain both meanings. 
The noun is again used in 123 below. 

10. imaginations. The word is used frequently in this sense 
in the English New Testament, e.g. Rom. i. 21 ; 2 Cor. x. 5. 

14. give for lost; 'esteem as lost,' 'admit to be lost,' or 
merely ' relinquish ' ? 

24-35. This seems to be Satan's customary pose before his fol- 
lowers, and in at least one moment of solitude (IV. 91, 92). Prob- 
ably his more genuine feeling is expressed frankly in that first 



120 Paradise Lost. 

moment of awakening in Hell (T. 262, 263). — Reduce this present 
speech of Satan's to bare terms, and see if it contains a logical 
thought. 

The speeches which follow, of Moloch, Belial, Mammon, and 
Beelzebub, should be studied somewhat carefully, and a compari- 
son made between the four characters. 

51. sentence ; sententia, ' vote.' 

67. Black fire. Compare I. 64, 182. 

75. proper; proprius, 'one's own.' 

76, 77. descent and fall to us is adverse, ' i.e. inconsistent 
with our nature. It is a proposition with Milton, as to the physi- 
cal nature of the angels, that they are not, like men, subject to 
gravitation. The rebel angels had not properly fallen through 
Chaos into Hell ; they had been driven down ' (Masson). 

89. exercise; earercere, Uorment.' 

94. incense; mcenofere, 'kindle.' 

106. denounced; denuntiare, 'threaten.' 

109. humane; /mwanws, 'polished.' 

113, 114. Socrates was accused of making Hhe worse appear the 
better reason ' (Plato, Apology). Milton had in mind probably the 
Sophists, mere disputants who, like Belial, deliberately varnished 
fallacies with plausibility. 

119-225. In the first part of his speech Belial takes u]3, one by 
one, the points which Moloch has made, and replies to each in 
detail. Later (187-225), he brings forward his own theory. 

139. ethereal mould. See note on I. 45 above. The subtle 
fire of which the Heavenly substance is made, and which Milton 
calls indifferently ' ethereal ' and ' empyreal,' would, says Belial, 
easily overcome and free itself from the ' baser fire ' of Hell. 

158,159. whom his anger saves to punish endless. 'The 
Devil,' says Sir Thomas Browne, ' were it in his power, would do 
the like [destroy himself] ; which being impossible, his miseries are 
endless, and he suffers most in that attribute . . . his immortality.' 

181, 182. the sport and prey of racking whirlwinds. Ver- 
gil's ' rapidis ludibria vends.' 

184. converse ; conversari, ' dwell together.' 

185. Compare Hamlet, I. 5, 77. 

210. Supreme. 'This throwing back of the accent in words 
like "supreme," "extreme," "complete," "obscure" (cf. 132), is 



Wote.^, Book 11. 121 

usual in Milton (and Shakespeare), wlien they precede a mono- 
syllable, or a noun accented on the first syllable' (Verity). 
224. For happy ; ' as to the chances of happiness it affords.* 
227. ignoble ease and peaceful sloth. ' These words,' says 
Landor, ' are spoken by the poet in his own person, very improp- 
erly ; they would have suited the character of any fallen angel, 
but the reporter of the occurrence ought not to have delivered 
such a sentence.' 

255, 256. preferring hard liberty, etc. Cook quotes from 
Prometheus Bound, 966, 967 : 

* I would not barter — learn thou soothly that — 
My suffering for thy service.' 

299-309. Which when Beelzebub perceived, etc. * Observe 
how Milton reserves the decisive speech for the great angel, Beel- 
zebub, the chief next to Satan, and already privately advised of 
his plans. In the preceding speeches Milton intended, doubtless, 
to represent poetically three very connnon types of statesmanship. 
Some men, in emergencies, take the Moloch view of affairs, which 
recommends boisterous action at all hazards ; others take the Belial 
view, which recommends slothful and epicurean acquiescence ; and 
others the Mammon view, which believes in the material industries 
and the accumulation of wealth. The angels in the Council are 
evidently inclining to Belial's view, or to that as modified by 
Mammon, when a greater statesman than any of the three strikes 
in with a specific plan of action, not vague and blustering like 
Moloch's, but subtly adapted to the exigencies ' (Masson). 

322. reserved ; reservare, ' restrain.' 

330. determined; r/e^ennmare, ' set bounds to.' 

375. original ; o7'igo, ' progenitor.' 

379, 380. first devised by Satan, etc. See I. 650-656 above. 

404. tempt; ternptare, ^essRj.' 

407. uncouth ; used in its older sense. 

410. The happy isle ; not the earth, but the AVorld, or Universe, 
of which alone the fallen angels have knowledge. 

412. stations ; stationes, ' guards.' This passage Landor calls 
' such a torrent of eloquence as there is nowhere else in the region 
of poetry, although strict and thick, in v. 412, sound unpleasantly.' 

434. Why do we find convex here, and ' concave ' in 635 below ? 



122 Paradise Lost. 

438. Notice the dim grandeur of the suggestion in such phrases 
applied to chaos as the void profound, 'the palpable obscure/ 
and ' the vast abrupt.' 

439. unessential ; * unsubstantial.' 
456. intend ; * attend to,' ' consider.' 

464. Through all the coasts, etc. ' Coasts, used now of the 
sea-line, but in Milton's day more generally in the meaning country. 
There is nothing in the origin of the word to make the expression 
"sea-coast" tautological' (Hale). 

471. opinion; as frequently in Shakespeare, 'reputation.' 

496-505. Mr. Hale suggests : ' This reflection of Milton's may 
have been called forth by the impossibility of the Puritan leaders 
coming to any good understanding after the death of Cromwell. 
He may have felt that had they shown a firm united front, the 
Restoration would not have come.' 

528. sublime; suhlimis, *■ <sXoit.' 

531,532. shun the goal with rapid wheels ; ^ metaque fervidis 
evitata rotis' (Horace, Ode 1.). 

542. Alcides ; Hercules. 

558-561. This contemptuous reference to theological discussion 
is not without pathos as a confession, from the poet's own experi- 
ence, of the futility of polemic controversy. Yet the later books 
of this poem are by no means free from just this sort of dis- 
cussion. (See III. 96-128; V. 524-534.) 

592. Serbonian bog. Herodotus mentions this lake, which 
lay very near the sea, on the northeast coast of Egypt. Long ago 
it vanished into the sands. 

597. The damned whose fate is here described are of course 
not Satan's angelic followers, but the offspring of Adam. The 
passage (596-616) is therefore a digression. 

600. starve ; allied with the German sterhen. Hale says that 
' in some English dialects it means " to die of cold." ' 

621. Cook has the following note on this verse : 

Lowell comments : ' Milton, like other great poets, wrote some 
bad verses, and it is wiser to confess that they are so than to 
conjure up some unimaginable reason why the reader should 
accept them as the better for their badness. Such a bad verse is 

Rocks, caves, lakes, /e?is, bogs, deyis and shapes of death, 



/ 

Notes, Book II, 123 

which might be cited to illustrate Pope's 

And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.' 

But Burke says {Sublime and Beautiful, Part 5, Sec. 7): 'Here 
is displayed the force of union, . . . which yet would lose the 
greatest part of the effect if they were not the 

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades — of Death. 

This . . . raises a very great degree of the sublime; and this 
sublime is raised yet higher by what follows, a " universe of 
death."' 

What impression do the verses make upon you? Landor, 
quoting lines 614-621, says : ' It is impossible to refuse the ear its 
satisfaction at ' them. 

641, 642. The merchants are described as sailing through the 
Indian Ocean southward to the Cape of Good Hope. 

647. impaled; 'fenced in.' 

650. * Milton's figure of Sin is own sister to Spenser's Error 
and Phineas Fletcher's Hamartia, or Sin ; their common origin 
being the classical accounts of Scylla, notably Ovid's (AfeL XIV.) 
and Vergil's (JEneid, III.). It is, therefore, as a study in a familiar 
style, not as a fresh creation, that the picture should be viewed ; 
comparison it challenges and bears, originality it does not claim. 
So with his figure of Death. . . . The basis of the allegory of 
Sin and Death lies, appropriately, in Scripture : " Then when lust 
hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin ; and sin, when it is finished, 
bringeth forth death," James i. 15 ' (Verity) , 

693. conjured ; conjurare, ' swear together.' 

706. deform; rfe/brm?s, ' shapeless.' 

709. Ophiuchus ; ' Serpent-bearer,' a constellation in the north- 
ern heavens. 

721,722. never but once more. When was this to be? See 
1 Cor. XV. 26; Heb. ii. 14. 

755-758. AVhat classic myth does this recall? 

833. purlieus. Look up the history of the word, and that of 
buxom, 842 below. 

889. redounding ; redundare, ' overflow.' 

891-916. 'It would be difficult,' says Masson, 'to quote a pas- 
sage from any poet so rich in purposely accumulated perplexities, 



124 Pm-adise Lost. 

learned or poetical, or in which so much care is taken, and so suc- 
cessfully, to compel the mind to a rackingly intense conception of 
sheer Inconceivability.' 

895. ancestors of Nature ; of nature as known to us in our 
Universe. 

943-947. Arimaspian. According to Herodotus, the Arimas- 
pians were a one-eyed race, dwellers in the remote North, who 
carried on fierce feud with the gryphons, or griffins, a mythical 
creature half eagle and half lion. 

964,965. the name of Demogorgon; Demogorgon himself; a 
Latinism. 

1001-1006. 'This is the first distinct intimation to Satan that 
the new universe of Man had actually been created. He had 
guessed so before leaving Hell, but it was still only a guess in 
his speech to Chaos a few lines back ' (Masson). 

1029, 1030. the utmost orb of this frail World ; the outer- 
most star, or the outer spherical shell of the Universe? 

1046. Weighs ; ' balances.' 

1051-1053. i.e. ' The World, or Universe, is as insignificant be- 
side the Empyrean from which it hangs, as the smallest star beside 
the moon.' 



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